The Impossible Adventures of Clara Oswald
by TimeLordPrime
Summary: Clara Oswald's echoes suddenly start disappearing from throughout time and space and Clara has absolutely no idea what's happened to them. She'll have to find out quickly however before she finds herself disappearing next - permanently! This story is set in the Guardian Who universe but you won't have to have read any of it in order to understand what's going on. An ongoing series
1. A Game of Claras Part 1

THE IMPOSSIBLE ADVENTURES OF CLARA OSWALD

I do not own Doctor Who or Game of Thrones and I am making no profit off of this.

 **Author's Note: This story is set in the Guardian Who universe but you won't necessarily have to have read any of those stories in order to understand this one. I'll explain everything as I go along. I hope you'll like it. For those of you who do care about such things though, this story takes place sometime after It's Better With Two Chapter 54.**

CHAPTER 1

A GAME OF CLARAS PART 1

Leeds, England - 1955

"Mum, where are you? Mum?" Six year old Abigail cried out in fear as she stood all alone in the middle of a crowded sidewalk.

Yes, technically the sidewalk was filled with people, but she might as well have been completely alone because all of them were complete strangers to her. No one there knew her or her mother, and not one of them could help tell her where she was.

The terrified little girl had absolutely no idea what was going on. All that she knew for sure was that moments earlier she and her mother had been walking home after enjoying a happy day together at the neighborhood playground. Then her mother had suddenly vanished into thin air . . . while she was still talking to her!

Abigail hadn't been looking at her at the time that she had vanished so she really didn't know what had happened to her. All that she knew for sure was that she had been desperately searching for her ever since then but hadn't been able to find a single trace of her anywhere. No one had even seen her.

Now she was just barely able to keep from completely panicking as she began to become more and more terrified by the moment. The longer that she had no idea where her mother was, the more uncertain that she became that she would ever find her again. This just added more fuel to her growing desperation to find her.

It also made her become increasingly reckless . . . perhaps far too much so for her own good.

As soon as Abigail saw a woman who looked similar to her mother walking away from her on the opposite side of the street, she immediately raced after her.

"Mum! Wait! It's me! Please wait!" Abigail cried out.

She was so intent on catching her that she didn't even bother to watch for oncoming traffic. Nor did she heed the warning of the oncoming truck's horn as it sped straight towards her at full speed while its driver desperately tried to stop it in time.

There wasn't enough time however. The brakes would never be able to slow the truck down fast enough to save the little girl's life. Normally nothing would be able to save Abigail from becoming just another unfortunate traffic fatality by this point.

Abigail screamed just as she was about to be hit head-on by the speeding vehicle as she finally saw it at last. She closed her eyes and silently prayed that her mother would save her somehow just a moment before the truck reached her.

Then she heard nothing but silence.

"And what do you think you're doing running into the middle of traffic like that? Didn't you mother ever teach you any better than that, Abigail?" An angry, and very familiar, voice suddenly said from somewhere nearby a moment later.

Fortunately for Abigail, Clara Oswald didn't know the definition of the word impossible . . . which was more than a bit ironic since she was an English teacher.

Abigail now opened her eyes and smiled from ear to ear as soon as she saw Clara standing on the very same spot where she had just been standing herself moments ago. Time had completely frozen all around them so that the truck was, for the moment at least, in absolutely no danger of actually reaching her.

"Well, hurry up then. I'm still a bit too green with my cosmic powers to know for sure what I'm doing so even I don't know when time might start up again," Clara said in a worried voice as she beckoned to the child to come to her.

"Mum!" Abigail shouted with joy as she ran straight to Clara and hugged her tightly.

"Mum?" Danny Pink said in surprise as he finally caught up to Clara at last after she had suddenly sprinted away from him a moment before.

Up until now, he had had absolutely no idea what she was up to. She had just said something about 'not on my watch' while he had just been about to kiss her on a date. Then the next thing that he knew they were both stuck in the middle of the 50s while she rapidly ran away from him far faster than he would have thought that any one that size could possibly run.

Then again she did have similar Vortex abilities to Rose Tyler's which she had accidentally gained when she jumped into the Doctor's timestream before he had met her so maybe she had Super Vortex Speed or something for all he knew.

"I'll explain it to you in a mo, Mr. Pink. Sorry about the kiss by the way. I really was looking forward to it. I'm not your mother, Abigail. I'm your Aunt Clara, remember? Your mother introduced us before. Remember?" Clara said as she stroked the confused child's hair with a concerned look on her face.

"Aunt Clara?" Abigail asked in an uncertain voice.

"Yes, sweetie. You don't have to worry anymore, alright? You're safe now. I'll take care of you until we find your mother again," Clara promised with a reassuring smile.

"She's the daughter of one of your echoes, right? The ones like Cydonia who look just like you. You realized that something was going to happen to her mother and came here as soon as you could to save her," Danny said as he tried to process what was going on.

Clara grinned with approval as she said, "You're getting better and better at this, Mr. Pink. Soon enough now you'll be able to go through an entire day without having to ask for an explanation for something weird from me once. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not though."

"It depends on whether I'm still sane by then," Danny said only half joking.

"Eh, sanity's overrated in the Doctor's world anyway. Besides I'm still perfectly sane myself so there's always hope, right?" Clara said as she winked at him.

Then she stopped her usual banter with Danny as soon as she realized exactly how upset Abigail really was. She immediately chastised herself for not paying more attention to her as soon as she saw the devastated look on the child's face.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Clara. I . . . I thought you were her. I've been seeing her everywhere but every time I stopped it was never her," Abigail said as she finally started to cry now at last.

She hadn't allowed herself to do so before. She had to remain focused on finding her mother after all.

"You don't really know what happened to her at all, do you?" Clara asked her in a disappointed voice.

"No. I – I wasn't looking. I should have looked. It's my fault for looking away. If I had been looking, maybe I could have helped her," Abigail said in tears.

Clara immediately shook her head as she said, "No, you couldn't. It's not your fault, sweetie. There's nothing that you could have done that would have made any difference whatsoever so you can just stop that right now."

"Are you sure?" Abigail asked in an uncertain voice.

"I'm positive. No one could have helped her. Not even me and I tried, Abigail. I really tried. I will find her though. I promise. I'll find her and bring her back to you no matter where she's gotten off to, okay?" Clara said as she kissed the top of her head.

"Do you mean it?" Abigail said with a hopeful look.

"Of course I mean it. She'll be coming back, Abigail. You can count on that," Clara reassured her even as she hoped against hope that she wasn't lying this time.

She was far from feeling reassured herself in that moment however. Abigail's mother was the third of her echoes to suddenly disappear for no reason recently, and this time it had almost cost an innocent child her life as a result. Whatever or whoever was doing this had to be stopped right now.

The problem was that she had absolutely no clue at all about how to do that or even where to start looking for one for that matter. She wasn't about to find one here either.

"I didn't get to her in time, Danny. Another one just vanished into thin air. This time it was almost right in front of me," Clara said in anger.

"At least you saved her daughter," Danny said with a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, that's about the only thing I've done right since this all started. I could actually feel the link between us being severed, Danny. It was just like what happened to the other two echoes that vanished. I can always feel the presence of all of my echoes in the back of my mind even when I'm not talking to them and for that to suddenly be gone is . . . Well, it's jarring is what it is. It feels like someone just stole a part of my soul away. It's just suddenly gone somehow and I don't know how or why. I tried teleporting here to her time just as soon as I could in order to try and keep whatever's going on from happening to her too but I must have just missed her. I'm so glad I stayed around to keep looking for clues though or poor Abigail would have been pulverized," Clara said as she held the little girl to her tightly.

"So we're just taking her with us to our time then? Won't that be extremely confusing for her?" Danny asked.

"Maybe but she's completely alone in this time so it'll be a lot better for her than letting her wind up in some orphanage won't it?" Clara said.

Then she instantly winced as she added, "Sorry. No offense meant."

Danny gave her a reassuring smile as he said, "None taken. I wasn't saying that you shouldn't take her. It's just that she's going to have a lot of adjusting to do to our time. Maybe we should prepare her for it first."

Clara nodded and said, "Yeah, you're right. I'm so used to having strange new experiences on a daily basis that I've forgotten how much it can freak out other people. Thanks for making me remember that. Come on, Abigail. Let's go sit down somewhere. I need to have a little talk with you first so you know what to expect, okay?"

"Alright," Abigail said as she clung to Clara's hand like a lifeline with a frightened look on her face.

"It's going to be okay," Clara whispered in her ear as she started to stroke her hair and slowly led her down the street.

As Clara kept an eye out for someplace private to sit and talk to Abigail where she wouldn't be instantly overheard and thought of as a complete nutter, she said to Danny, "It seems I've become a little too much like the Doctor in some ways. I'll have to remember to keep an eye out for that from now on. Then again I did spend nine hundred years with him on Trenzalore so he's bound to have rubbed off on me just a little bit."

"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that part," Danny admitted with a frown.

"Oh, don't let it bother you so much. I'm very youthful for an older woman," Clara said with a mischievous smile.

"You don't act like it had any effect on you at all which is more than a bit odd," Danny agreed with just a hint of worry in his eyes.

Clara smiled as she said, "Well, that's probably because I always have Bad Wolf Girl looking out for me. You see all of that time on Trenzalore feels almost like it happened to somebody else instead of me. In my mind I still feel like I'm in my twenties instead of my hundreds and it's just like nothing's really changed for me at all. I'll bet you a freshly baked soufflé that Rose had something to do with that as some sort of a consolation prize for not being able to save me from becoming trapped there along with the Doctor. She wanted me to have as normal a life as possible and didn't want that standing in the way. It sounds just like her to me."

"Are the two of you talking about a story, Aunt Clara?" Abigail asked in confusion.

Clara grinned as she said, "Yeah, it's just a story, Abigail. Don't worry about it."

She hated to start lying to the girl already but she was already going to be confused enough as it was when she took her to the future. She didn't need to add to it even more with the weirdness that was her daily existence.

Finally they found a bench far away from both prying eyes and ears and started to tell her about what lay ahead for her in the future. Even as they did so, Danny couldn't help but remember that he had once met a possible future daughter of his and Clara's named Ellie who had told him that she had an older sister.

Was this her? Had he just met his future daughter for the first time here today?

Even as Danny struggled to make sense out of what was going on, neither he nor Clara had any idea that they were both being closely watched at that very moment. Only it wasn't from a point originating anywhere on Earth . . . or even in the same universe for that matter.

 **Somewhere in Hyperspace.**

The live video feed of Clara and Danny that the current inhabitants of the starship Cygnus were watching paused at that moment as a mechanical voice said, "This version of Clara Oswald hardly seems to be the monster that you would have us believe that she is, Prosecutor. Indeed she seems to show nothing but love and concern for the child in her custody even though she isn't truly hers. So far your case against her is extremely weak and practically non-existent."

"How very observant of you to notice the gaping holes in my illustrious colleague's so-called case against Miss Oswald, Your Honors. You could practically drive a truck through most of them in fact. Sorry. That last remark might have been just a bit in bad taste after that scene with the girl," A woman's voice said with an amused chuckle.

"More than a bit! It seems that the Defense is just as reckless as Miss Oswald herself is towards the safety of those around her, Your Honors. But then we already know exactly how far it's possible for Clara Oswald to descend, don't we? The defendant has already proven to be ample evidence for that," The prosecutor said.

A spotlight now shown on yet another version of Clara who sat chained to a chair in the center of the room as she said in a voice filled with immeasurable pain and regret, "Please don't do anything to anyone else because of what I did. That's no one's fault but my own. Just because I did such horrible things doesn't mean that other versions of me would too. It's not fair to condemn them for my crimes. They've done nothing wrong!"

"Not yet," The prosecutor said.

"And probably not ever, Your Honors. The defendant is right. Galactic law specifies that alternate versions of the same person cannot be punished for crimes that they have not themselves committed. They are judged to be innocent of those crimes because they are not legally the same person despite being almost identical in all ways to one another. Only the actual accused can be condemned. We cannot condemn someone for something that they might do in the future just because they're another version of a known murderer," The defense attorney said.

"We're not even from the same universe. Please. Just leave her and all of the others alone," The other Clara pleaded in tears.

"The Defense claims that the version of Clara Oswald in question is in no obvious danger of becoming like the defendant and yet I will present to you evidence of one of her echoes that will clearly show you otherwise," The prosecutor said.

"Indeed?" One of the two spherical mechanical judges present said with keen interest as they both floated above the room.

"Oh, yes, Your Honors. I have evidence that one of Miss Oswald's echoes was also a murderer and killed several people in a now aborted timeline that never existed. Another version of Clara Oswald was not an echo at all but her dark side given form. She is a notorious woman known only as the Matriarch who almost caused the entire universe to be destroyed due to her meddling with the Web of Time. Our current defendant, the 'Psycho Clara' as many of us have taken to calling her, is hardly an aberration. I present to you that she is the rule rather than the exception. All versions of Clara Oswald everywhere are extremely dangerous to everyone in their path," The prosecutor said.

"This is completely insane, Your Honors, and you can really believe me when I say that I know insane when I hear it. The echo he's speaking of only killed after she was turned into a vampire while saving the Doctor's life. She is as blameless for her actions as the defendant is because neither one was in their right mind when those acts were committed. A vampire's bloodlust is a well-known corrupter of even the strongest of wills. As for the Matriarch, she has since been made into a Guardian of Time by the Grace themselves. Do we need a more glowing recommendation of exactly how much that particular version of Clara is not and never was truly evil at all? The prosecutor is as full of himself as he always was, Your Honors, with his so-called 'evidence' against both my client and this other completely innocent Miss Oswald. I suggest that you stop abducting her echoes immediately and return them all home before any more damage is done to the timestream," The defense attorney said.

"Unfortunately while we both might currently agree with your statements, we cannot do so at the present moment. We must gather together as many versions of Clara Oswald as we can from throughout time and space in order to access the truthfulness of the prosecution's statements for ourselves. This is for their own good as much as it is to help his case," One of the judges said.

"I protest this action, Your Honors. It is unlawful harassment of an innocent woman and her other selves. Plus if you continue to do this, you'll draw some very unwanted attention to yourselves," The defense attorney said.

Then she leaned toward the two judges conspiratorially as she said with a smirk, "And trust me when you I say that you really, really don't want to do that."

"We are aware of her connection to the professional rule breakers known as the Doctor and the Bad Wolf. We will not allow that information to intimidate or prejudice us in any way despite the death sentence that still lies over the Doctor's head. The fact that we never carried out his execution still haunts both of us to this very day. It is our only true failure," One of the judges said.

"And I suppose destroying that entire galaxy for not agreeing with your judgment wasn't? And they call me mad," The defense attorney said in a low voice.

"What was that?" One of the judges asked.

"Nothing, Your Honors. Absolutely nothing. Yes, the Doctor is a well-known criminal and I would gladly go along with any attempt by you to try and execute him, but Miss Oswald is entirely innocent I assure you. She's just yet another in a long, long line of innocent young Earth girls who have all been completely taken in by this fake 'good guy' image that he maintains. I think it's all a big ego thing if you ask me. He just loves having them all worship him and tell him how brilliant he is," The defense attorney said with a snort of derision.

"This may be so. We will find out the truth for ourselves in due time. Until then, we will continue to use the time scoop that our learned prosecutor has so graciously proved to us to remove the various echoes of Miss Oswald from throughout time and space and bring them to us. Once we have as many of them as we can safely obtain, then we will probe all of their minds at once in a detailed and thorough investigation as we attempt to ascertain the truth of the prosecution's claims for ourselves. No one will be allowed to interfere with or question the activities of the Megara until we do so. To do otherwise is punishable by death by Galactic law. Is this understood?" One of the two spherical Megara judges said in a harsh mechanical tone as it floated above the defense attorney's head.

"Perfectly, Your Honors. Believe me. Even I'm not that crazy," The defense attorney said with a small chuckle.

"Why do you continue to persist with these remarks about your sanity? They have no relevance on your case whatsoever," The other lighter voiced Megara said in confusion.

"Oh, it's just a private little in-joke between me and your learned court prosecutor over there, Your Honors. Think nothing of it. I'll certainly stop if you wish me to though. I would never do anything to offend either one of you of course," The defense attorney said with a smug smile.

"Consider it a formal request as of now. If you violate it again, you will be immediately executed without warning," The deeper voiced Megara warned.

"Understood, Your Honors. I think that our esteemed prosecutor gets the message as well. Don't you, Valeyard?" The defense said with a chuckle.

"Oh, it's become very clear to me. I'm just not quite the _master_ of theatrics that my esteemed adversary there is so I don't show off anywhere near as much as she does," The Valeyard said with a frown.

"Oh, I don't know. You're always been nothing but a remarkable show-off in my opinion," The defense attorney said.

"You will also desist in your personal attacks on one another. This is a warning to both of you. Is that understood?" The deeper voiced Megara warned.

"You're obviously right of course, Your Honors. If you can't say something nice, then say nothing at all, right?" Missy said with an evil smile.

"Well said. Now we will continue with the use of the time scoop once more. We will use it to grab even more echoes for use as witnesses in the current investigation against Clara Oswald until it has been determined if the Valeyard's case has any merit to it or not. We will also continue to watch Miss Oswald to see if she either condemns or exonerates herself with her actions," The lighter voiced Megara said.

"If I may make a suggestion, Your Honors, I think that there is one person that should definitely be brought here that is not an echo of Miss Oswald's. She would be essential in learning as much as we can about her true character," The Valeyard said.

"Objection, Your Honors. She's not even connected to Miss Oswald in any way except for the obvious of course. She would be no help whatsoever in this instance," Missy said.

"Who would know her better though?" The Valeyard asked with an evil grin.

"We agree with the Valeyard. She will be questioned as well to see what valuable insights that she might give as to Clara Oswald's true nature. You will use the time scoop to bring her to us at once, Valeyard," The deeper voice Megara said.

"Gladly and once you have all of the evidence before you, Your Honors, you won't be able to deny the inescapable conclusion of my case against her any longer. Then you will both agree with me that Clara Oswald in all of her forms should be retroactively wiped from the entire Web of Time!" The Valeyard said with a sinister smile as he went to leave the courtroom.

Missy couldn't help but wonder what he was up to by including the next witness in this farce of a trial. Perhaps it was a trap for the man himself though. She couldn't think of any better way to gain his attention after all and the Valeyard always liked to go in for grand theatrics of the highest order despite what he claimed.

Perhaps she should give this universe's Clara a bit of a helping hand because for once she definitely didn't want another version of the Doctor around when she was carrying out one of her plans. The less that he knew about this whole thing the better in her opinion.

And she definitely didn't want her own universe's Doctor showing up either. Not that he was likely to at the moment. He had plenty of problems of his own after all.

She turned her back on the Megara now and quickly closed her eyes as she gave this universe's Clara a quick mental message. She only hoped that by helping her that she was putting a huge spanner in whatever the Valeyard's plans were.

Clara meanwhile had just been about to take herself, Danny, and Abigail back to her own time when she suddenly received the mother of all headaches. Then moments later she heard a muffled voice shout a quick telepathic warning in her mind along with a complete set of coordinates.

"What is it? What just happened?" Danny asked with concern as Clara clutched her head in pain.

"Someone's telling me exactly where the next disappearance is going to be. They've even given me coordinates. I have to go right away while there's still time to stop it. Maybe I'll even find out what's going on while I'm at it. Here. I'll send you both back to our time, Danny," Clara said as she opened a small portal with a wave of her glowing hand.

"Hey, I'm getting pretty good at this now. I actually did it on the first try. Just walk right through it and it'll close right behind you. It'll take you straight back to my grandmother's house. See you later, Mr. Pink," Clara said with a warm smile as she started to glow all over with a silver aura of Vortex energy.

"Wait a minute. Clara, this could be a trap," Danny warned.

"Aunt Clara, please don't go. I won't know anyone over there if you do," Abigail said in a frightened voice.

"You'll be fine, Abigail. I promise. Danny and my grandmother will both take good care of you until I get back and so will my sister, Cydonia. She looks just like me and your mum so you'll feel right at home. Oh, and I know it's possibly a trap, Danny, but I still have to try anyway. If I can just save one of them it'll be worth the risk. I've lost too many of my echoes already especially lately. I won't let another go easily. Not if I can help it. Now go before the portal closes up," Clara ordered.

Danny sighed and then gave her a quick salute as he said, "Right, boss."

"Well, I'm certainly glad that we got that straight, Mr. Pink. I am the boss and I've just given you your marching orders, Soldier Boy. Go to it then," Clara said as she quickly vanished in a burst of energy.

Abigail briefly laughed for the first time since Danny had met her then as she said, "She sounded just like my mum then. She gives me orders like that too."

"It seems to run in the family," Danny said with a warm smile as he took her by the hand and led her straight into Clara's portal

"And where do you think you're going?" A voice said from behind them just before they could step inside of it.

"Mum?" Abigail asked in surprise.

"No, not quite but you're close, sweetie. You can call me your Aunt Matriarch. Auntie M for sure if you wish. Ooh, Auntie Em! I like that. It's very Wizard of Oz," The Matriarch, a future version of Clara's dark side given human form, said with an amused smile.

"Wouldn't you be the Wicked Witch instead?" Danny said as he gave her a wary stare.

"Oh, I see Clara's been talking about me to you, Soldier Boy. Didn't she tell you that I'm one of the good guys now though? The Grace said so. I've got their seal of approval and everything. Listen, Dan the Soldier Man, I don't have time to argue with you right now. We need to go help Clara right away because she's in way over her head right now. If we don't, all Claras everywhere are likely to be completely erased from history altogether. What a tragedy that would be! I'm far too lovable to have never existed and Clara's okay too I suppose," The Matriarch said with a chuckle.

"What are you going on about?" Danny asked in confusion.

"No time to explain now. We'll talk later. Right now we have a Clara to catch. Well, two of them really. Sort of. Must dash," The Matriarch said in a panicked voice as she snapped her fingers and she and Danny disappeared.

Abigail meanwhile appeared back in Clara's grandmother's house right in front of a very surprised Cydonia, who was Clara's Time Lady echo from Gallifrey and was currently living there. She had absolutely no idea what was going on but quickly comforted the extremely upset child anyway as soon as she saw her while she slowly told her the whole story.

By the time she finished, she couldn't help but wonder exactly what Clara had gotten herself into this time. That and who in the world Auntie Em was.

Meanwhile Clara herself had gone straight to the coordinates that the mysterious voice in her head had given to her only to find herself in another universe entirely. She was also in a completely empty room.

"Okay, very funny, whoever you are," Clara said out loud in an annoyed tone.

"Hello? Is someone there?" A voice suddenly said from the other room

Clara immediately froze as she heard footsteps rapidly heading towards her. What in the world was going on here? Whoever it was couldn't be another echo. She would have already felt their presence in her mind by now if it was.

So if it wasn't an echo, exactly who was it and what did they possibly have to do with her?

She immediately got her answer as soon as the door opened and a woman that looked exactly like her stood there staring at her.

"What?" The woman said in confusion.

"What?" Clara said in an equal amount of confusion.

Then both women seemed to realize exactly who the other was at once as Clara said with a smile, "You're . . ."

Now she knew exactly who this must be. She had had heard all about her from the Doctor when he had been stranded in another reality recently. It was a reality where the Doctor's life had actually been turned into a television show oddly enough.

Why couldn't she have her own television show? Surely her life was far more interesting.

"That's right. And you must be . . ." The woman said with a grin as she too remembered meeting the actual Doctor and recalled his telling her that in another world their show was actually real.

Then they both saw a glowing triangular object slowly coming towards them at once. Neither of them had the slightest clue what it was, but they both instinctively knew that it was dangerous.

"Nice to meet you, Jenna," Clara said.

"Nice to meet you too, Clara. Boy, it sounds weird to say that. I really wish that this was under much better circumstances. This is just like the show isn't it? Every time one of you shows up in this universe it's nothing but trouble isn't it?" Jenna Coleman said with a grin.

"Well, in my defense, I have absolutely nothing to do with this whatsoever. At least I don't think so anyway," Clara said with a sheepish grin.

"Sounds like something the Doctor would say. Uh, shouldn't we be running right now?" Jenna asked in alarm as the triangular object drew ever closer to them now.

"Why run when you can do this?" Clara said with a huge smile as she grabbed Jenna's hand and quickly began to teleport both of them away at once.

"You have super powers? Why can't my Clara have super powers?" Jenna said in a jealous tone as they swiftly disappeared.

Meanwhile back on the Cygnus, the Megara instantly became enraged as the deeper voiced Megara said, "Clara Oswald has now interfered in our official acquisition of witnesses. We have no choice but to charge her with interference in an ongoing investigation which is punishable by death. We will now use the time scoop to bring her here as well to stand trial for this charge . . . along with possible future ones."

"I'm glad that you're finally seeing sense now, Your Honors," The Valeyard said happily.

"Your Honors, she doesn't even know that a trial is going on," Missy protested.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"Whoops! Watch out, Soufflé Girl. It looks like you're about to have more trouble than even you can handle," Missy said with a shrug.

 **Next: It's Clara and Jenna running for their lives from the time scoop as we began to learn more about what Missy and the Valeyard are really up to and what it has to do with Clara. Will Clara find out in time to save herself from being potentially completely erased from existence or will the Matriarch and Danny have to lend a helping hand?**


	2. A Game of Claras Part 2

CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, or Game of Thrones and I am making no profit off of this.

A GAME OF CLARAS PART 2

"What are you doing? Are you trying to get us both killed?" Jenna said in a terrified voice as she and Clara suddenly appeared several hundred feet above an enormous snow covered mountainside.

"Oi! Lower the volume a bit, okay? Everything's fine. We're not going to fall. I'm not exactly an expert at this cosmic stuff yet but I'm not that bad. I was just a little off on where we ended up because I teleported without a clear destination in mind," Clara said with a frown.

"That really inspires me with confidence alright. I suppose I should be glad that we didn't wind up in the middle of the ocean somewhere," Jenna said in an annoyed voice.

Clara groaned but otherwise said nothing as she started to slowly lower them down to the ground. Jenna could tell that she was much more worried than angry though by the concerned way that she kept looking around her as if expecting that strange object to reappear once again at any moment now. Jenna instantly felt bad now for snapping at her like that because Clara had probably just saved her life for all that she knew.

Jenna immediately took a deep breath and said in an apologetic tone, "Sorry. I'm usually not like that. I know you were scared and not exactly thinking straight. So was I. What was that thing? Do you have any ideas?"

Clara smiled at her in gratitude as she said, "I'm not sure. I didn't recognize it at first but something about it seems familiar the more that I think about it. It's almost as if I've seen it somewhere before or at least one of me has anyway."

"You're talking about the echoes, right? You can actually remember what they did? On the show, my version of Clara doesn't seem to remember much about them at all," Jenna asked curiously as she smiled in relief when she finally felt her feet touch solid ground once again.

"I really envy her then because I remember almost everything. A little too much in fact and it almost drove me mad for a while. Don't even think about making any snarky remarks about what do I mean by almost," Clara said with a grin.

"I wouldn't dare. I'm still feeling more than a bit guilty for snapping at you the way I did earlier," Jenna said with a warm smile.

"You mean you're not going to mercilessly make fun of me like everyone else in my life seems to do? Imagine that. I'm actually around someone who's just as nice and sweet as I am for a change. I could definitely get used to this," Clara said with a chuckle.

"You forgot to mention how incredibly humble that you are," Jenna couldn't resist saying.

"I knew it was too good to be true," Clara said with a giggle.

The two of them instantly hugged as each of them found themselves liking the other one almost immediately. Clara couldn't help but feel as if she had just found a missing part of herself somehow and couldn't help but wonder if Jenna felt the same way.

"Where are we anyway and why am I not freezing to death? This whole mountain top is covered in solid ice but I feel like I'm still back at home. Do you have some kind of cosmic heating power or something?" Jenna asked with a mischievous smile.

"It's a force field actually. It's keeping us both safe from whatever might decide to show up next just in case we get attacked from behind. It's also keeping us both nice and warm which is good because I don't know about you, but I definitely forgot to put on my wool underwear this morning. As for where we are, we're somewhere on Mount Everest . . . I think," Clara said with an uncertain look on her face.

"Uh, I'm not trying to take your head off again or anything but you can get us off of here, right? I really don't fancy having to walk home from here even if I do have super cosmic heating," Jenna said in an anxious tone.

"Don't worry so much, yeah? I'm just trying to get my bearings before I make another jump. I don't want to wind up in the middle of the ocean any more than you do after all. By the way, you're definitely taking all of this a lot better than anyone else that I know would. I guarantee you that if Amy were here that she'd have already complained about a hundred times by now and made twice as many short jokes. So thanks for bearing with me so far, okay?" Clara said with a wry grin.

"Well, if you can't trust a girl who's wearing a copy of your face, then who can you trust, eh? Maybe it's also because I'm still a bit in shock right now because this still doesn't feel quite real to me yet. I keep expecting to find out any minute now that this is another one of Peter's practical jokes or something," Jenna admitted.

Clara gave her a sympathetic look as she said, "Sorry, that's definitely not going to happen I'm afraid. I can give you some good news though. We're definitely on Mount Everest and I'm just about to get us out of here. I also finally remember what the triangle thing was. It's called a time scoop and it's used to snatch people from their own time and place and bring them somewhere else. One of my echoes tried to save Doctor Number Three, or as I affectionately call him Fancy Pants, from being abducted by it once while he was driving along in his funny little yellow car but she was less than successful."

Jenna's eyes lit up as she said, "I remember filming that scene. That was mixed in with some footage from The Five Doctors wasn't it?"

"The what?" Clara asked in confusion.

"That's the story where the first five Doctors are all kidnapped and taken to Gallifrey by a mad Time Lord if I remember correctly. I watched it along with some other Classic Who stories once so that I'd know what was going on in my scenes. I always love it when I can excuse massive binge watching as research," Jenna said with a chuckle.

"Oh, is that what they called it? Cydonia, that's my Time Lady echo by the way, was there for the bit on Gallifrey. She helped the four Doctors that actually got there to defeat Lord President Borusa from behind the scenes. Not that she'll ever get any credit for it of course," Clara said with a frown.

"You mean there actually is a Time Lady echo who looks just like me I mean you? Oh, I'd really like to meet her. What is she like? Is she anything like the Doctor? I mean is she . . . ?" Jenna asked in a hesitant tone.

"Completely mad? Of course not! Hey, not every Time Lord is like the Doctor. I always get the impression that even they consider him a bit odd actually. No, she's probably one of the most normal echoes that I have which is downright amazing since she was right in the middle of the worst parts of the Time War. If I can get us out of this, I'll definitely stop by and have the two of you meet each other sometime. You'll really like her I think. She's just like a sister to me and so is . . . Oh, my stars!" Clara suddenly shouted as she gazed off somewhere in the distance with a terrified look.

Jenna immediately followed her gaze and her blood instantly turned cold as soon as she saw what was hovering there off in the distance. It was the time scoop again. Whoever was behind it had finally found them once again.

"We have to go right now. Let's hope I can do this right this time because I'm definitely going for a much longer jump for this one," Clara said in a panic as she quickly grabbed Jenna's hand and teleported the two of them away from it once again.

Luckily both women reappeared with their feet firmly on solid ground this time around as Clara smiled and said, "Yes! I nailed it that time, Actor Girl. I told you I was getting better."

Jenna was just about to make a comment on her choice of a nickname for her when she suddenly gasped in shock as soon as she happened to catch a full glimpse of her surroundings. She instantly recognized exactly where she was as soon as she did so because there were standing in an open field that was filled with red grass for as far as the eye could see and the sky was bright orange and indescribably beautiful. Off in the distance she could see a magnificent domed city that was easily far grander than any place that she had ever seen before back on her own world.

"Gallifrey," Jenna said in a quiet almost reverential tone.

"Yeah, this place always does that to me too no matter how many times I see it. I thought I might as well come here since the Time Lords are usually the ones who go around using time scoops on people," Clara said.

Before Jenna could really get a chance to truly appreciate the incredible landscape around her however, the two women suddenly found themselves standing in a large meeting chamber filled with dozens of people. Jenna automatically assumed that this group must all be Time Lords since they were dressed in odd looking ceremonial robes. They all stared down at them with open curiosity as Clara mouthed the words 'High Council' to her.

"Actually we haven't used time scoops since the time of Rassilon, Lady Lungbarrow. That incident with Borusa notwithstanding of course," A Time Lady said in an almost offended tone.

"Well, someone definitely must have broken one of them out of mothballs then because we've had one chasing us for the last twenty minutes now, Chancellor Flavia. If you lot didn't send it then who did?" Clara asked.

"Lady Lungbarrow?" Jenna asked in confusion.

"Oh, The Doctor and Rose made me the head of their ancestral house on Gallifrey. It's a long story. It's definitely not as great as you'd think it would be though. For one thing, I have to deal with this lot and their annoying backstabbing politics way too much," Clara said dismissively.

"Why do you get to do all of the cool things?" Jenna asked with a pouting look despite this.

"Just lucky I guess," Clara said with a mad grin.

"That's enough frivolity, Lady Lungbarrow. Am I to understand that you're accusing someone on Gallifrey of illegally stealing and using a time scoop against you and your echo then?" Another Time Lady asked with concern.

"I'm not her echo," Jenna said in an indignant voice.

"Well, someone's certainly using one and since you lot invented them in the first place who else am I going to accuse, Inquisitor Darkel?" Clara said as she ignored Jenna.

"If this is true, then we have a serious security breach somewhere in the Capitol. I assure you that we had nothing whatsoever to do with its deployment against you and your echo and we will look into this matter as soon as possible," Darkel assured her.

"Hello! I just wanted to point out once again that I am not her echo. Is anyone listening?" Jenna said with a sigh.

Clara ignored her yet again as she said to Darkel, "I appreciate your help but I'm afraid that's not going to be enough to save us in time."

"What do you . . . ?" Darkel said and then gasped in shock as she finally saw what Clara had already seen seconds earlier.

"This is outrageous! A time scoop being deployed right in the middle of the High Council's meeting chamber!" Flavia said in disbelief.

"Now do you believe me? Sorry, I'd really like to stick around but I'd really rather not find out where that thing wants to take us if it's all the same to you. See you later. I hope," Clara said as she grabbed Jenna's hand and quickly teleported away with her once more.

As soon as the two women left, the time scoop did as well and many members of the High Council instantly let out an audible gasp of relief as it did so.

"We must find out who has gained control of a time scoop at once and for what purpose, Inquisitor? We cannot allow this sort of behavior to go unpunished especially against the head of one of Gallifrey's oldest Houses," Flavia said in a furious voice.

"There is no need to investigate this matter any further, Chancellor. We have deployed the time scoop for our own purposes," The deeper voiced member of the Megara said as the two machines suddenly appeared in the Council's meeting chamber.

"And by right have you done such a thing? That device is the property of the Time Lords and was long ago deemed to be unfit for any future use," Darkel said in an indignant tone.

"We have been using it to acquire witnesses for our trial against a rogue version of Clara Oswald from another reality and now we wish to use it against your version of her as well so that she can answer for obstruction of justice charges among several potential others," The deeper voiced Megara explained.

"Clara Oswald is an official member of Gallifreyan society despite her human origins and as such is subject to our law not yours. If she has truly done something wrong which I seriously doubt, then the High Council will appoint an Inquisitor to bring her to trial . . . if we think her to be truly guilty of course," Flavia argued.

"I submit that we, having the superior version of justice since we are non-humanoids and incapable of making the mistakes that your lesser organic minds make, try her first and then submit our findings to you. If she is indeed guilty, then there will be no arguing with our conclusions. Then you will be the ones to decide what her final punishment should be, but we would of course recommend that you immediately erase her and each and every one of her echoes from throughout time and space since we could possibly rule her as a potential threat to all of reality," The deeper voiced Megara said.

Flavia hesitated for a moment and then said, "You may proceed with your trial but we reserve the right to disagree with your findings."

"We are certain that you will not because they will of course be every bit as infallible as we ourselves are, and you would be wise not to argue with one of our official rulings as others have previously. It tends to lead to a very unfavorable outcome," The deeper voiced Megara said in a threatening tone just before the two machines suddenly vanished.

"Are we really going to let ourselves be pushed around like this and leave her fate in the hands of those murderous creatures?" Darkel protested.

"No, because I don't like this any more than you do, Inquisitor. I just wanted them to assume that we would stay out of things so that we wouldn't have any further trouble from them. I want you to do everything in your power to find out exactly what's going on here however and if there really is any truth to their claims against Clara. I'm not about to let her have her good name tarnished like this much less have her be executed. The Lady President would have our heads for it, and I for one would not like to have to answer to an enraged Jenny Tyler over this, would you?" Flavia said.

Every single member of the High Council shuddered at that thought since Jenny was basically Clara's sister and extremely close to her. They didn't even want to think about what Jenny's father or even worse her mother (who thought of Clara as being just like one of her own children) might do to them either.

They definitely didn't wish to live through a repeat performance of what happened to Telos at her hands.

Even as the High Council shivered in fear over the potential wrath of the Bad Wolf, Clara and Jenna suddenly found themselves on yet another alien landscape. This time they were in the middle of a ruined, almost desert like landscape with yet another domed city looming in the background.

Jenna instantly recognized this new location as soon as she arrived there and immediately began to quiver in fear as she said, "We have to get out of here. Do you know where you just brought us?"

"It's okay, Jenna. Yes, it's Skaro but in my universe the Daleks really aren't that bad anymore. I promise," Clara explained in a reassuring voice.

Jenna immediately looked at her as if she were mad as she said in a terrified voice, "You're a Dalek puppet aren't you? Any minute now you're going to have an eyestalk pop out of your forehead."

"Relax, okay? Different universe, different rules, Actor Girl. My version of Skaro is definitely a whole lot friendlier than your show's is. Trust me," Clara said.

"Who are you? What business do you have here on Skaro? Speak quickly or you will be made to answer to us," A reptilian sounding voice threatened from somewhere behind them.

"Trust me she says. I know exactly who that is, Clara, and he/they are definitely not friendly," Jenna said in a worried voice.

"It depends on who's in charge actually and I happen to be very close to his boss," Clara said with a grin as she suddenly turned around to face the object of Jenna's fear.

"And hello to you too, Snake Boy! Somehow I don't think your boss would like it very much if you killed her favorite person in the entire universe, do you?" Clara said with a smug grin as she showed herself to the infamous Colony Sarff, former servant of the now imprisoned Davros.

"Oh, my apologies! I didn't recognize you from behind," Colony Sarff said in a manner that told Clara that he really wasn't sorry at all.

Then Clara instantly smiled and Jenna gasped as a voice that was equally familiar to both of them said, "Excuse me? You're my favorite person? You might make my top ten. Might. Maybe. Still I probably would feel bad about it if something happened to you plus Rose would probably blow up my planet since she seems to be doing that sort of thing now so . . . Colony Sarff, I think it would be best if you left these two alone, don't you? Or do you want to be the one to explain to Rose why she shouldn't blow up Skaro while she's busy disintegrating you?"

Colony Sarff visibly shook with fear now as he said, "As you wish, Empress."

Then he quickly left as Jenna said in a tone of complete and absolute disbelief, "Empress? Wait a minute. I know that outfit. I wore it on my first story. You're Oswin Oswald. Oh, I do not believe this! Oswin Oswald is the Empress of the Daleks? This is just too much! Why isn't she a Dalek though? Your universe is even weirder than the show."

"You like it though don't you, Actor Girl?" Clara said with a grin.

"Well, of course. That goes without saying. It's so weird that it's actually kind of cool. Oh, and Actor Girl is definitely not a good nickname. Why not Action Girl instead or better yet, Your Majesty?" Jenna said with a smirk.

"Yeah, I don't think so, Actor Girl," Clara said with a wicked smile as Oswin rolled her eyes at her and laughed.

"Actor Girl? Is this who I think it is?" Oswin asked as she looked at Jenna in surprise and gave her a scrutinizing gaze.

"Yep. It's her alright and for your information Rose is not going to blow up Skaro. She almost had a nervous breakdown after destroying Telos. You know better than that, Ozzie," Clara said with a frown.

"Yeah, I do know better but the other inhabitants of Skaro who don't know exactly how much of a goody two shoes that she really is definitely don't. They're all scared stiff of her. That's why you got that wonderful reception when you arrived. Most of the people here are still afraid that Skaro is next on Rose's hit list despite the fact that she brought Telos back again. Sorry about Sarff by the way. He's one of Davros' special little problem children that I inherited when I took over the planet. He has a tendency to go off the rails if I don't carefully watch him all of the time. Epsilon, he's one of my boys, says that I should exterminate him, but I don't do that sort of thing as a rule in case you haven't noticed that by now, Jenna," Oswin said with a reassuring smile.

Jenna nodded as she said, "Yeah, I was pretty sure as soon as I saw you that I was safe, but it's always nice to get that confirmed. So when you mean one of your boys you're talking about - ?"

"AFFIRMATIVE. I AM A DALEK AND THE EMPRESS' SECOND IN COMMAND. I AM EPSILON," Epsilon said as he suddenly joined them.

Jenna visibly backed away from him as she said, "He's real. I mean I knew it was all real but this . . . this is a bit too real. He's not just some prop with someone inside of it. He's actually . . . real."

"Hey, don't worry, okay? He won't hurt you. He's about as dangerous as a puppy. I promise," Clara said with a grin.

Epsilon instantly seemed to be extremely offended by that as he said in what Clara was sure was an almost pouting tone, "THERE'S NO NEED TO BE INSULTING, CLARA OSWALD. I AM ONLY HARMLESS TO THE ALLIES OF MY EMPRESS. TO HER ENEMIES, I AM COMPLETELY WITHOUT MERCY."

Oswin quickly cleared her throat at that comment which made the Dalek quickly add, "I DON'T EXTERMINATE THEM EVEN THEN UNLESS IT'S ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY HOWEVER."

"Nice save, Eppy," Oswin said as she affectionately patted the top of his metal casing.

"Oh, this is just beyond weird right now," Jenna said as she stared at the two of them in utter disbelief.

"Yeah, I often think the same thing about her myself. She's just like my extremely kooky twin sister. You'll never believe this but I'm actually the sanest one of the bunch," Clara joked.

"You're right. I don't believe it," Jenna teased her.

Oswin laughed as she said, "Good for you for not falling for her little ego trip. So what brings the two of you here? I have a feeling that it's not to check out the local scenery."

"EMPRESS, PLANETARY SENSORS INDICATE THE APPROACH OF AN ONCOMING TIME SCOOP OF GALLIFREYAN ORIGIN," Epsilon suddenly warned.

"Yeah, I was just about to get to that in a minute, Ozzie. That thing really wants Jenna for some reason and I'm not too sure that it's a good idea to let it anywhere near her. This was the one place where I was sure that she might be safe. Sorry to bring trouble to your door like this, but I didn't know what else to do," Clara said in an apologetic tone.

Oswin smiled and immediately hugged her as she said, "Hey, it's no problem. After all I've got to look out for my even kookier twin, don't I? I'm not about to let that thing get anywhere near either one of you. Eppy, activate the transduction barrier and set it to maximum. Create multiple time corridors around the entire planet and see if we can trap it inside one of them. Try firing the Time Destructor at it too while you're at it and see if it has any effect. If all else fails, I want you to hit it with everything that you've got. I want maximum extermination."

Epsilon actually sounded happy as he said, "IT WILL BE DONE, EMPRESS."

As he raced off to oversee all of this personally, Clara said, "Maximum extermination? Really?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds a bit silly but the boys always love it whenever I say stuff like that. It gets them all excited just like little kids at Christmas. The only thing that would make them even happier I bet is if I told them that they could exterminate the Doctor. Not that I ever would of course," Oswin said with a mischievous grin.

"Not unless you really do want Rose to pay you an extra special visit," Clara quipped.

"I still don't understand exactly why this thing is after me. What did I do? I've never even been to this universe before," Jenna wondered out loud.

Clara looked guilty now as she said, "I don't think that it's anything that you did at all. This is all about me for some reason. I've had three of my echoes disappear mysteriously without a trace lately and now I know exactly what stole them. What I don't know is who's behind it all and why. All I know for sure is it has to stop right now before it goes any further, and then I'm going to get the ones that they stole back no matter what I have to do. I have to. I . . ."

Clara started to tear up now and quickly looked away as Oswin and Jenna both looked at her with concern. Jenna wanted to comfort her but wasn't sure if she should or not since they still didn't know each other that well yet. Oswin however had no such qualms and immediately wrapped her arms around her and let her cry on her shoulder.

"Care to talk about it?" Oswin asked in a compassionate voice.

"One of the echoes has a little girl. She was left behind without a mother or anyplace else to go, Ozzie, and it's all because of me somehow. I promised her that I'd get her back but I don't know if I can or not. What do I tell her if her mum is . . . is . . . ?" Clara asked in an emotional voice.

"We'll worry about that if and when we find out that it's true or not. Until then, we're going to assume that it isn't and that we're going to get her back somehow eventually. Do you hear me? If anyone can get her back, you can because we both know that you're too stubborn to ever give up when someone needs you," Oswin said in a gentle voice.

Clara smiled and said in a grateful voice, "Thank you. I just needed to hear someone else say that I think."

Jenna smiled at both of them as she found herself already liking Oswin now and starting to consider them both to be her friends. She could see a lot of herself in each of them even if neither of them could truly be said to be her. It was almost as if a part of her, the very best part, had been brought to life before her eyes somehow in the form of these actual flesh and blood beings that were somehow impossibly based on her own television characters.

"No wonder they call you the Impossible Girl," Jenna said to herself in a low voice.

"What?" Clara asked.

"Nothing. So if you don't know what's going on or where to go to find out any answers about it, how do we ever stop that time scoop thing from chasing us? If you're anything like the Clara that I played, I'm sure you'll come up with some kind of answer. She was always doing that somehow," Jenna said.

"Oh, so now you have faith in me, do you? When we first met you were so sure that I was going to get us both killed. I'm so glad to see that you've finally learned to appreciate me now," Clara teased her.

"So does that mean that you actually do have a plan then besides spending the rest of our lives here at this beautiful vacation spot?" Jenna said.

"Oi! No cracks about my home. I'm slowly improving things here I'll have you know. You should have seen the place a few months ago after Evil Me finished declaring war on it. Believe it or not the way it looks now really is a huge improvement from the way that it was before," Oswin reassured her.

"Way to go to make me feel guilty, Ozzie. I mean I know I deserve every last bit of it but this time I actually did come here to help. I really have turned over a new leaf these days I promise. No pun intended," A voice suddenly said behind them.

"Another echo?" Jenna said in a surprised voice.

The Matriarch grimaced as she said, "Echo? Oh, no no no! I'm the real deal in every way plus my powers are far, far cooler than hers."

"This is the Matriarch. Until recently she was like my version of Miss Hyde but nowadays she's supposedly on my side. I'm still not too sure about that though to be honest. I've seen far too many evil mes lately to accept that quite so quickly. Oh, and she is most definitely not a part of my plan in case you were wondering," Clara said to Jenna as she rolled her eyes at the Matriarch.

"Then it's a good thing for you that I came here when I did because I know exactly what your plan is, Clara. Who would know that better than me after all? Believe me when I say that it's definitely not a good idea. You need to stay free if you're ever going to have a chance of fixing all of this. Oh, and you are most definitely not to blame for any of this so stop feeling sorry for yourself," The Matriarch said with a stern look.

Jenna smiled as she said, "She seems alright to me. She's like an even sassier version of you."

"Like I said, better in every way," The Matriarch said with a proud smile.

"Okay, if you really are on my side now, then I need you to tell me exactly what you know about all of this. I can definitely tell that you know something just from the look on your face," Clara demanded.

"Oh, I know a lot of things including the fact that coming here is not going to save you, Clara," The Matriarch said as she pointed to a spot off in the distance with a grim look on her face.

"Oh, my stars!" Clara said in disbelief as she saw that somehow impossibly the time scoop had gotten through to her once again.

"That's impossible. Nothing could have gotten through Skaro's defenses that quickly," Oswin said in a horrified voice.

"It could have if it was made by someone who knew those defenses inside out from having been here so many times before," The Matriarch said with a cryptic smile.

"It's never going to stop, is it? Do I have to keep running for the rest of my life?" Jenna asked in a weary voice.

"No. No, you don't," Clara said in a determined voice as she began to glow with power.

"Clara, don't do this. It's a huge mistake," The Matriarch insisted.

"Don't do what? What are you planning? Could someone possibly let me in on what's going on please?" Jenna asked in confusion.

"I hate to say it but listen to her, Clara. She's actually right for once. Just stay right where you are and let the Daleks handle this," Oswin advised.

"Okay, I'll give them their shot," Clara said but something about her manner told Jenna that she didn't have too much confidence in that idea.

"EXTERMINATE!" Thousands of Daleks cried out at once as a massive army of them filled Skaro's sky blotting out its sun while they all fired in unison on the incoming time scoop.

Enough power to destroy entire worlds was focused on the rapidly traveling triangle but none of it so much as left a scratch on it. The time scoop still continued on as if the Daleks hadn't even been there.

"Well, so much for that idea then, yeah? Looks like I'll have to try mine out after all now, doesn't it?" Clara said obstinately as the time scoop continued to rapidly close the gap between them.

"I knew you'd say that. That's why I brought him here," The Matriarch said as she snapped her fingers.

"Clara?" The voice of Danny Pink suddenly said from somewhere in the distance.

"Danny?" Clara said in surprise as she saw Danny come running towards her with a concerned look.

"Now let's see if he can actually talk some sense into you for once," The Matriarch said to Clara with a frown.

"Danny, what's going on? Where's Abigail?" Clara said as she looked at the Matriarch suspiciously.

The Matriarch sighed as she said, "Oh, she's just fine. This _is_ Abigail that we're talking about after all. Give me a break."

Clara gave her a surprised look but said nothing. Something about the way that she had said that and the sudden look of regret on her face immediately afterwards as if she had somehow said more than she should made Clara instantly wonder exactly who Abigail could potentially become to her.

"I'm not exactly sure what is going on. First she sends Abigail on to the future without me and then she took me to some weird place with a bunch of strange beings in it that all acted like they worshiped her and just dumped me there until a minute ago. She claims to want to help you though," Danny said as he looked at the Matriarch suspiciously.

"Why does no one ever believe me? I mean besides the obvious of course. Can't a former bad girl get a second chance too just like everyone else?" The Matriarch asked with a groan even as she continued to glance at the oncoming time scoop with growing trepidation.

"I think she really is worried about you," Jenna said to Clara.

"Yeah, I think she is too and that makes me even more worried somehow about whatever's going on here," Clara admitted.

"The Matriarch said something before about someone wanting to erase you and your echoes from time," Danny said.

"Why though? What could I have possibly done to deserve this level of hatred?" Clara said in disbelief as the time scoop now came within twenty feet of her and continued to speed forwards without stopping.

A holographic projection was now emitted from the time scoop that showed two spherical shaped glowing beings. One of the beings immediately began to glow brighter than the other one as it began speaking to her in a deep voice.

"It's not what you have done but what you could do. Clara Oswald, you are now hereby summoned to appear before the Galactic Court of the Megara so that we can judge for ourselves whether you are a clear and present danger to the universe or not. If you do not come with us willingly this time, both you and this entire world will be subject to immediate destruction," The Megara threatened.

"Oh, I'd really like to see you try. You might be surprised as to who winds up destroying who, Robot Boy," Oswin said in an angry voice.

"No, there's no need for that. I don't want to bring any trouble to anyone else, and I'm really getting tired of running anyway. If I go . . ." Clara started to say.

"Clara, don't. This is exactly what I came here to prevent you from doing in the first place. Don't you see? It's a trap, Clara. He knows you. He knows that you'll do this to protect the others. Once you go there, you might not be coming back again. Even I'm not sure what will happen because none of this ever happened before in my timeline. He's deliberately changing history just by being here in the first place. Danny, talk her out of this. Please," The Matriarch pleaded.

"Wait a minute. Was this your plan to find out what's going on, Clara? You're going to surrender to them?" Jenna asked as she looked at her as though she were completely mad.

"Do any of you have any better ideas? The Doctor always said that the only way to find out what's going on is to let yourself be trapped," Clara said.

"Yes, and that's exactly what the real mastermind behind all of this is counting on you to do, Clara. Don't you get it yet or do I have to spell it all out for you? The Valeyard is back and he's manipulating all of this just so that he can get rid of you," The Matriarch warned.

"Oh, now I get it. I see exactly why you're so frantic now. You're not worried about me at all. You're worried about yourself," Clara accused.

"Yes, of course I am but I'm worried about you too, you moron. I really have changed. Why can't anyone just believe that for once and please listen to me?" The Matriarch pleaded.

"I think she really is telling the truth, Clara. Even if she isn't, I agree that it's not a good idea to just willingly go along with these things. Who knows what they'll do to you?" Danny said.

"That's right. Listen to Danny, Clara, because he's absolutely right. I know exactly what the Valeyard has planned. He wants to erase every single one of us from throughout time and space so that no one ever went into the Doctor's timestream to save him. He wants the Doctor to die so that he can steal all of his lives, Clara. Now am I finally getting through to you?" The Matriarch said in a furious voice.

"What's she saying actually makes sense to me, Clara, and that's more than a bit scary now that I think about it. It actually doesn't sound too weird or strange in the slightest bit to me anymore," Jenna admitted with a frown.

"This is a preposterous accusation. Our court prosecutor has no real power here in this situation at all. He has merely brought certain things to our attention for us to investigate, but we, the Megara, have the ultimate say over whatever finally happens," The lighter voiced Megara said in an offended voice.

"Sure. That's what he wants you to think. He's playing you like a violin the entire time though while he completely manipulates this entire situation to his own advantage. Just like your so-called defense attorney in this case wants you to think that she's an actual lawyer from the distant future instead of a howling mad loon with an agenda all her own. I mean do you actually check anyone's credentials that you work with at all, Megara? Honestly!" The Matriarch said with a sigh.

"You will desist in making these baseless slanders against the Valeyard's character or you will be immediately judged with contempt of court and summarily executed on the spot," The deeper voice Megara warned.

"No, wait! She's definitely annoying but I don't want her to die. I've lost more than enough versions of me lately as it is. If I go with you, do you promise to spare everyone else here and leave them alone? That's including Jenna too by the way. You have to promise to send her back home without bothering her any more or I'll continue to run with her for as long as I can. I promise that you won't be catching up to me anytime soon either so if you want to finally get this over with once and for all without a whole lot of trouble you'd better take me up on my offer while it's still on the table, boys," Clara said.

"Clara, don't do this. I have a bad feeling about it. Something about this doesn't sound right to me. I think that the Matriarch might actually be telling the truth," Danny said.

"Listen to him. You know he would never lie to you, Clara. He loves you and only wants the best for you. You know that," The Matriarch said in an anxious voice.

"We accept your offer of surrender, Clara Oswald," The Megara said as the time scoop finally drew within arm's reach of Clara now.

"Good. Then we have a deal then. So go ahead and send Jenna back and I'll answer any questions that you want," Clara said with a smile.

That was when a massive beam of energy suddenly came forth from the time scoop and instantly paralyzed Clara on the spot so that she was completely unable to move or even attempt to escape. The Matriarch and Oswin both immediately tried to attack the device in order to free her, but they had no more luck than the Daleks had had against it.

The Valeyard knew them and exactly how to counter all of their powers all too well after all.

The deeper voiced Megara almost sounded smug now as it said, "No, you misunderstand. This is no deal. You have no bargaining position here and never have. You will be made to stand trial for Obstruction of Justice and possible future charges and the witness, Jenna, will be made to answer all of our questions about you. Then and only then will she be allowed to go home while you may be facing possible temporal erasure from throughout the whole of the Web of Time. This time there is no escape for you from the power of the Megara, Clara Oswald."

"No!" Jenna screamed as the time scoop finally swallowed both her and Clara and captured them at last.

As it sped off to take them to the Cygnus somewhere in hyperspace, Clara immediately fell into complete despair as she wondered if the Matriarch had been right after all. That feeling only became worse when she saw who was waiting for her there.

"Hello, dear," Missy said with a mad grin as she waved at her.

"Oh, no! Not her too. Now we really are done for," Jenna said with a sigh.

"You! You're not even from this universe. What are you doing here?" Clara said with wide eyes.

Missy immediately put her finger to her lips as she said in a low voice, "Shush! No need to spoil my cover. I'm pretending to be a defense attorney in order to help you and the other Claras. For once I'm the good guy here. I'm actually trying to save all of your lives."

"Uh huh. Right and I'm the Queen of England. What other outright lies do you want me to believe while you're at it, Laughing Girl?" Clara said with a smirk.

"I really don't care what you believe, girl. All that should matter to you is that the Valeyard wants to wipe you out and is after you with a passion. He's not going to quit until he does too. Like it or not, I'm the only chance that you've got to avoid that," Missy said.

"Like I said, we're done for," Jenna said with a groan.

"And what do you get out of it?" Clara asked suspiciously as she quietly began to agree with Jenna.

"Oh, I'll have my reward. Don't you worry about that," Missy said with an evil smile as her eyes darted towards yet another Clara who Clara could now see was imprisoned across the room from her.

"I'm so sorry about this, Clara. I never wanted to drag you and the others into all of this. I've already caused you enough trouble," The former psycho Clara said in a mournful voice.

"You're not one of my echoes. Who are you?" Clara asked even as she thought to herself that there was something very familiar about this particular version of her.

That was when the Valeyard entered the room at last as he said, "She is the version of you from another reality that has been dubbed the Psycho Clara after her willful and wanton destruction of entire realities. This was originally her trial but now I'm about to get the Megara to place you on trial as well since you're just as dangerous as she is."

"Hardly! I've never done anything even close to being as bad as what she's done. This really is a joke if you're trying to put me anywhere in the same league as her," Clara said as she looked at the former psycho Clara in open disgust.

"Ah, but I'm about to prove otherwise starting with the testimony of your new friend there," The Valeyard said as he pointed to Jenna.

"I don't even really know her though. How could I testify to anything about her?" Jenna protested.

"I disagree. You probably know her far better than anyone so what better witness as to her basic completely corrupt nature. You're about to tell the Megara all about what the Clara of your television show was capable of doing including how she once tried to force the Doctor to alter time in order to save her version of Danny and how she constantly lied to everyone in order to get what she wanted. Oh, yes, by the time I'm finished with you I'm afraid that I'll paint a very bleak picture of Clara Oswald indeed. They'll have no choice but to erase her from existence by that point," The Valeyard said with an evil smile.

"That has nothing to do with this Clara though. None of those things ever happened to her because her Danny's still alive," Jenna protested.

"No, but it shows exactly what she could be capable of given the right tragic circumstances in her life. That sense of doubt about her is all that I need to plant in the Megara's minds in order to win this case. It's almost over with now, Clara. I hope that you've made your final peace with yourself," The Valeyard boasted.

As Clara's face instantly fell, Missy said to the Valeyard with a smug grin, "Oh, I wouldn't be so quick to declare victory just yet if I were you. You don't know what witnesses that I have to call forth yet after all, do you?"

"It hardly matters does it? Clara is still finished no matter who you call," The Valeyard said confidently.

Suddenly the entire area glowed with light for a brief moment and then a group of beautiful glowing women who all reminded Clara of the elf Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings movies appeared before them. Clara instantly recognized them from Rose and Jenny's descriptions of them.

"We are the Grace and we guard the Web of Time itself from all who would dare to interfere with its intricate weave and skein," One of the women said as they all stared at the Valeyard in open disdain.

As the Valeyard's face instantly fell, Missy smirked and said, "That's right. I've brought the Grace themselves, the bosses of the Guardians of Time and the all-around ultimate good guys of the universe, to testify for my client. And that's not all either."

The room was filled with a brilliant glow once more and suddenly standing next to the Grace was the Megara themselves!

"What?" The Valeyard said in complete surprise.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that I was calling forth the future version of the very judges of this case? It must have slipped my mind. I wonder what interesting things that they'll have to say to their present day counterparts, hmm? Makes you wonder doesn't it? Beat that for a group of witnesses!" Missy said with a malevolent laugh.

"I'm so confused right now. I honestly don't know who to root for anymore," Clara admitted with a perplexed look.

"Brave heart, Clara. You didn't think that I was really about to abandon my best friend to the mercy of these bunch of pudding brains, did you? Luckily for you the Matriarch managed to track me down and actually convince me that she wasn't lying for once. Well, mostly it was P.E. that convinced me actually. The whole story that he was telling me about you, the disappearing echoes, and the time scoop was far too complex for someone like him to have just made it all up by himself. He's nowhere near that imaginative," The voice of the Doctor suddenly said from behind her.

Clara now turned around with a relieved smile and immediately hugged him tightly even as both Missy and the Valeyard suddenly turned pale at once. Jenna meanwhile couldn't help but start smiling herself because at least she was seeing another familiar face besides her own here for once even if he wasn't the man that she knew back in her own world.

"Doctor!" The Megara both said with raw undisguised hatred as they finally entered the courtroom at last.

"Yes, hello. I've come to help out my friend, Clara, here and to make sure that her so-called defense attorney doesn't wind up getting away with whatever she's really here to do. I really hope that we've put that little misunderstanding between us back when I was Teeth and Curls far behind us by the way," The Doctor said.

"Doctor, you have escaped our justice for far too long now. Prepare for immediate execution," The Megara immediately said.

"I guess not," The Doctor said with a frown.

Clara couldn't help but smile though because despite how serious things looked right now for the first time since this mess had started, she finally had a sense of hope at last. She was absolutely certain that the Doctor would be able to help her sort all of this madness out because they were basically unstoppable together.

That is if he didn't wind up getting himself killed first of course.

 **Next: The trial of Clara Oswald finally begins at last as the Valeyard and Missy both try to persuade the Megara of their individual cases. And if the Doctor can survive long enough, he and Clara will both have to figure out together exactly what both of their old foes are really up to here because not even the Matriarch has it all figured out just yet.**


	3. A Game of Claras Part 3

CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who or Game of Thrones and I am making no profit off of this.

 **Author's Note: Just a friendly warning. I'm going to be giving away major spoilers about Face the Raven in this chapter so don't read this until you've seen it.**

A GAME OF CLARAS PART 3

"HALT!" A Dalek voice suddenly shouted as an enormous Dalek that was easily twenty feet tall with a red casing and a massive gun that resembled the Special Weapons Dalek's cannon-like gun installed in its center appeared in the middle of the courtroom.

"How dare you involve yourself in these proceedings? What right do you have to interfere with this trial?" The deeper voiced Megara said in a flustered tone.

The red Dalek immediately turned towards them now as it said, "I HAVE EVERY RIGHT BECAUSE I AM THE EMPRESS OF THE DALEKS AND YOU ARE ABOUT TO INTERFERE WITH DALEK JUSTICE BY KILLING THE DOCTOR. HE HAS ALREADY BEEN TRIED AND SENTENCED TO EXTERMINATION ON SKARO CENTURIES AGO FOR HIS MANY CRIMES AGAINST THE DALEKS. BY THE TERMS OF GALACTIC LAW, THAT GIVES US THE RIGHT TO DISPENSE JUSTICE AT A TIME OF OUR CHOOSING AND MEANS THAT THAT SENTENCE CAN ONLY BE CARRIED OUT BY THE PROPER DALEK AUTHORITIES."

The two Megara immediately made several high-pitched sounds as they briefly consulted with one another in their own machine language. As they did so, the red Dalek briefly looked back at Clara and blinked the eye in its eye stalk.

It could have almost been said to be winking.

"It's Oswin," Clara whispered to the Doctor as she tried very hard to hide a pleased grin.

The Doctor nodded but still looked more than a bit worried as he said, "They still might not listen to her. They have great power themselves so they may not even fear the Daleks."

"They're real sticklers for the law though, aren't they? She actually is the legal authority on Skaro so I don't see why not, Old Man," Clara said with a hopeful look.

"I really hope being inside that thing isn't as horrible for her as it was for my Clara," Jenna said with a sympathetic shudder.

"I'm sure that her Daleks would make sure that it wasn't, Jenna. They adore her," Clara reassured her.

"That's definitely different from my show," Jenna said in disbelief.

"Your Honors, the Daleks have no right to be here at all despite what they claim. They are attempting to disrupt these proceedings for their own benefit and should not be allowed to get away with such cheap theatrics," The Valeyard protested.

"Yes, only you can indulge in that sort of thing here, right? What's the matter? Are you afraid that you'll be shown up?" The Doctor said with a smirk.

"Ooh, nice one," Missy said with appreciation.

"Silence," The deeper voiced Megara said in a threatening tone.

"I REQUEST AN ANSWER IMMEDIATELY, MEGARA. WILL THE DALEKS BE ALLOWED TO CARRY OUT THE DOCTOR'S SENTENCE OR WILL I HAVE TO BE FORCED TO TAKE FURTHER ACTION TO ENSURE THAT THE RIGHTS OF SKARO ARE PROPERLY UPHELD?" Oswin demanded.

"She's playing a dangerous game by being this demanding. Then again that's exactly how a Dalek would act," The Doctor whispered to Clara who readily nodded in agreement.

The lighter voiced Megara was the one to finally answer Oswin now as it said, "Even though it greatly bothers us to do so, we have no other choice but to uphold the law. Your request will be granted, Empress. You may take the Doctor with you and go so that we can continue with the trial of Clara Oswald."

Oswin hesitated now as she pushed her luck further than she probably should and said, "I WISH TO STAY AND SEE THE OUTCOME OF THIS TRIAL. IF CLARA OSWALD IS FOUND GUILTY AT THE END OF IT, I WILL TAKE MY PRISONER AND GO. IF SHE IS NOT, THEN I WISH TO KEEP HER FROM ESCAPING HER OWN TRIAL ON SKARO BECAUSE THE DALEKS HAVE SEVERAL CHARGES AGAINST HER AS WELL."

"Your Honors!" The Valeyard protested.

"I see no reason not to grant your request to see the trial, Empress. I must tell you up front however that it is more than likely that we will find the defendant guilty and save your people the trouble of any further legal activity," The lighter voiced Megara said.

"I STILL WISH TO MAKE SURE OF THAT IN PERSON," Oswin said.

"Very well. You may stay," The lighter voiced Megara said despite the frantic protests coming from the Valeyard at that moment.

"It just looks like nothing's going right at all for you today is it? Let's hope that's the beginning of a trend," Missy taunted him with a wicked smile.

 _Oi! Some help you are! Why didn't you try to get me taken back to Skaro on charges too, Ozzie?_ Clara asked Oswin telepathically via her Vortex abilities.

 _That's because unfortunately for you I wasn't just making that up. There actually are outstanding charges against the Doctor on Skaro but not for you. The Megara are justice machines with complete access to all of the universe's legal history. They would know that instantly and sense that I was tricking them. At least I convinced them to let me stay though. Maybe I can still find a way to get you out of here if the worst happens._ Oswin replied.

 _Let's hope that it doesn't have to come to that, Ozzie, because I really don't like our odds._ Clara admitted.

"You may now start your case against this universe's version of Clara Oswald, Valeyard. We will then try the so-called Psycho Clara immediately afterwards. Call forth your witnesses," The deeper voiced Megara ordered.

The Valeyard smiled smugly now as he said, "I wish to call forth the assembled echoes of Clara Oswald that we have gathered together so that you can probe all of their minds at once to see the truth about Miss Oswald for yourselves, Your Honors."

"Very well. You may call them all forth into the courtroom. Proceed," The lighter voiced Megara ordered.

Clara now looked on in horror as not just the three echoes that she already knew had vanished appeared but also several dozen others. Apparently the Valeyard had gathered them all together just in the time since she had been on the run with Jenna. He had been working overtime it seemed. She did a quick head count in that instant and gasped as she realized that there were at least a hundred of them all gathered there together at once including Abigail's mother.

She noticed right away that something was wrong with them when they didn't react to her presence but just stared ahead of them with glassy eyes.

"What's happened to them?" Clara demanded.

"They are merely in a trance state so that we may access their minds easier than we could if they were able to put up some form of resistance. They have been completely unharmed . . . for the moment. What we find out about you will determine if they stay that way or not," The lighter voiced Megara answered.

"Let them go! They've done nothing wrong. If you've got something against me, then you take it up with me and not them. Just let them go home to their families. Please," Clara suddenly pleaded as she became instantly filled with worry and concern.

"I must say that this is looking very bad for your case right from the start, Prosecutor. She's showing actual concern for her other selves and those are not the traits of someone as bad as you would have us believe her to be. It could be that she acted as she did to block our collection of witnesses out of a need to protect others and not out of willful disrespect for our authority," The lighter voiced Megara argued.

"That's right, Your Honors. I did. I had no idea what the time scoop was going to do to Jenna and she's my friend. Of course I was going to try to protect her. I was also trying to find out what happened to my other selves because I care about them and one of them has a child worried sick about her back home," Clara agreed.

"That sounds like a very reasonable motivation for her actions, Valeyard," The lighter voiced Megara noted.

"Oh, I agree . . . if it's true. Is that really the actual reason however, Your Honors? Or is it merely what she wants us to think so that we don't discover something potentially incriminating in her echoes' minds?" The Valeyard said with a malevolent grin.

"That's not true! I thought you were a horrible liar, Old Man, but Evil You makes even you look like a choirboy by comparison," Clara protested.

"Silence in the court! The prosecution has made an excellent argument and one that must be tested immediately for its veracity. We will now use the truth assessor as we probe each and every one of the echoes' minds at once," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"You may proceed when ready, Your Honors. I think you will be most shocked by what you find there," The Valeyard said with a wicked smile.

"Uh, oh! Better watch out, poppet. If I know my Doctors and I do, he's definitely up to something," Missy said with a smirk.

Then Clara instinctively held her breath as the Megara finally began to use their truth assessor on the echoes. A beam of energy was instantly emitted from the two mechanical beings' bodies and quickly went from one Clara to another in rapid succession until within a few minutes they were finally done at last.

The deeper voiced Megara was instantly filled with anger as it said, "They have all committed numerous serious crimes including murder. They are all just as guilty as the Psycho Clara of such offenses!"

"What? That's not true though. I know most of them and they've never done anything bad in their lives," Clara said in a surprised voice.

"You know that and I know that but that's not what the judges are being shown. I strongly suspect that each of your other selves here has had false memories planted in their minds just before they were brought here. That can be easily done by an expert in advanced hypnosis . . . or so I'm told," Missy said with a mischievous smile.

"Oh, you've been told have you? Are you sure that you're not speaking from personal experience instead?" The Doctor replied with a frown.

"Why, I have absolutely no idea what you mean, Doctor. I am simply an honest and very hard working defense attorney just trying my very best to do my job. You must have me confused with some other incredibly beautiful woman who dresses extremely well. I'm sure that there is at least one or two more of us out there somewhere," Missy said with an enormous smile.

"I will find out exactly what you and the Valeyard are up to and I will stop it," The Doctor promised her.

"Maybe . . . unless you're far too busy trying to save your precious Earth girl's life instead of course," Missy said with a smirk.

"Aren't you going to object to this so-called evidence in the other mes' minds?" Clara said to Missy in irritation even as the deeper voiced Megara continued to rage on about her in the background.

"What would be the point, dear? Their truth assessor has been carefully fooled by planted evidence that the Claras themselves have actually been made to think is real. The Megara think that their truth assessor is completely infallible and unbeatable though, and you'll never be able to get them to admit otherwise. That's what my first witnesses are for by the way. Don't worry. I'll call them up very soon now," Missy reassured her.

"Well, you'd better while I'm still here to need their help," Clara said in an anxious voice.

"Your client is right I'm afraid. It's not looking good for her at the moment. You have the right to call forth your witness before the Valeyard can call forth his next one," The lighter voiced Megara advised.

"I'll wait until my learned opponent is finished with all of his witnesses first, Your Honors. I want to know exactly what I'm up against here," Missy said.

"What? No! You call someone up there right now, Laughing Girl, before the Scrapyard up there turns both of the Megara against me!" Clara shouted.

"Silence! Your attorney has already made her decision. If you interrupt like that one more time, I will order a clamp put over your mouth immediately," The deeper voiced Megara warned.

"Could you do that anyway, Your Honors? That would definitely help me out," The Doctor quipped.

Clara instantly gave him a look of death that told him in no uncertain terms that he would have been slapped unconscious right away if she wasn't already in hot water at that moment. The Doctor instantly shuddered as a result. It wasn't just out of fear of Clara however.

It was more out of fear for her.

"My esteemed colleague and Miss Oswald won't have to wait too much longer to have their say, Your Honors. I only have one more witness and then I'll be finished. Unfortunately for Miss Oswald however, hers will be the most damaging testimony of all to her case. I call Miss Jenna Coleman to the stand, Your Honors," The Valeyard said with a superior smile.

Jenna immediately gave Clara a look filled with sorrow as she said, "I'm sorry. I'm afraid that what I'm about to say isn't going to make you look any better if he asks what I think he'll ask me about."

"It's okay. Just tell the truth and don't try to lie to help me. There's no use in both of us getting the chop is there?" Clara said in a gentle voice.

Jenna immediately hugged Clara tightly now as she apologized to her once more with her eyes filled with tears.

Then she reluctantly went forward and stood next to the Megara as the lighter voiced Megara said, "Do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth as best as you, an organic being, are capable of understanding the truth?"

Jenna instantly looked at the machine with a deep frown as she said, "I think I've just been insulted."

"I'm quite sure of it actually," The Doctor agreed.

"Just answer the question, Miss Coleman," The lighter voiced Megara said in a patient tone.

"I do. I'm not a liar and I'm not completely incompetent either," Jenna immediately answered with indignation.

"Unlike the character who you play on television back in your own world who is both as we will soon see," The Valeyard said as he walked up to her.

"Yes, she's a character not a real person. I want to stress that. Just because she might be similar to your Clara doesn't mean that she's exactly like her," Jenna said defensively.

"And yet she's based on the real life of the Clara Oswald of another reality, isn't she? The Doctor didn't want to use his Clara's life so he used the story of another's in order to maintain her privacy. Your entire show is based on actual facts because the Doctor of this universe is an unofficial script consultant for it and always has been from the start. Is that not right?" The Valeyard asked.

"Yes," Jenna admitted.

"So that means that there's probably more than an element of truth about your version of Miss Oswald, isn't there? And what a truth is revealed about her on your show. Isn't it true that the Clara that you played lied on several occasions to the man that she loved, the people she met on her travels, and even her so-called best friend, the Doctor himself, in order to get the desired result that she wanted which almost always benefited herself?" The Valeyard asked.

"Yes, but there were always extenuating circumstances. Danny made her feel pressured to do what he wanted despite what would make her happy, and she would sometimes lie to the people she met so that they could retain a sense of hope and not panic. They could be handled and hopefully saved a lot easier that way. She lied to the Doctor because she wanted him to go back to Gallifrey guilt free thinking that she was back with Danny once more," Jenna protested.

"So they're harmless lies is that it? What about the time when your Clara tried to force the Doctor to use his TARDIS to alter time in direct violation of the Laws of Time in order to save Danny Pink who had died? Didn't she wind up throwing all of his TARDIS keys away when she didn't get the answer that she wanted? That was a move that if the Doctor had not placed her in a dream in order to protect himself could have left them both stranded on a deserted and extremely deadly volcanic world forever. Not that she cared of course! Isn't that right, Miss Coleman?" The Valeyard asked.

"Yes, but you're not telling the whole story! She was extremely upset and not thinking straight at the time. Anyone would be in her position," Jenna argued.

"But not everyone has access to the TARDIS or in our Clara's case near limitless reality altering power do they? Here's another question, Miss Coleman. Isn't it true that your Clara once lied to a woman named Maisie Pitt and told her that the Doctor was going to save her life even though the Doctor had just told her that he probably wouldn't be able to?" The Valeyard asked.

"Yes, but he actually did save her life. He just didn't want Clara to tip the mummy that was trying to kill her off about that," Jenna explained.

"Clara believed that she was lying though and yet still did so anyway however. Isn't that right?" The Valeyard said.

"Yes, but she immediately apologized to Maisie about it afterwards. She felt terrible but she was trying to do her best to save lives in an impossible situation," Jenna added.

"So we now have ample evidence that your Clara was more than capable of being an expert liar and extremely manipulative under the proper circumstances. Now we come to the final piece of evidence at last. This will truly give you a complete picture of just how dangerous that Clara Oswald really is. I'm about to tell you the story about how she died and how it was entirely due to her own arrogance," The Valeyard said.

"Clara, don't listen to this," The Doctor warned.

Clara and Oswin both immediately looked at him in shock because it was obvious from the serious look on his face that the Valeyard was right. The show really did tell the story of how another Clara had died. A sense of dread now filled Clara's heart as she saw Jenna give her a warning look of her own just before she started talking.

She wasn't sure that she wanted to hear what she had to say.

"You're horrible. You really are. That was not her fault. She died trying to save the life of a friend because she didn't want his infant daughter to lose her father. If anyone could sympathize with a daughter living without a parent it was Clara. She took a risk because she didn't want that to happen. She saved a life because she was a hero. Maybe she didn't quite believe that it was as risky as it actually was despite the evidence to the contrary, but it wasn't because she was arrogant. It was because she had too much faith in the Doctor always being able to save her. Then again maybe she did know and just wanted to be with Danny. Either way it wasn't her arrogance or pride that killed her. It was . . ." Jenna said before hesitating as she looked away from the Doctor.

The Doctor couldn't make eye contact with her anyway though. Not because he was angry at what she had said, but because he knew that it was all too true. The Doctor of that other Clara's reality probably did bear at least a partial responsibility for what had happened to her and that made him more determined than ever that nothing like that would happen to his own Clara.

The Valeyard eagerly finished for Jenna as he said, "It was her belief in the Doctor always being able to win no matter what. Is that what you were going to say? That sounds like a feeble excuse to me, and I do not accept it. I trust that you won't either, Your Honors. Now you have plenty of evidence to show that the character of Clara that was clearly based on our Clara was a manipulative liar and extremely arrogant to the point of recklessness. It wound up getting her killed and could very likely wind up getting others killed in our world. That is why she is a clear and present danger to all of us throughout time and space. No more witnesses, Your Honors. I think I've quite proven my case by this point."

"Could I say something in my Clara's defense before I leave, Your Honors?" Jenna asked as she gave Clara a look filled with regret.

"You may," The lighter voiced Megara agreed.

"I know Clara Oswald very well I think since I lived with her for three years so that should more than make me an expert on her true character. As an expert, this is what I have to say about who my Clara or any Clara truly is. Yes, she had her flaws and her problems but what human being doesn't? She was a real person not some cardboard cutout after all. Her strengths and nobility far outweighed anything that was negative about her though. She was always about helping others despite the costs to herself no matter what, and she was still saving others even at the end. That was what Clara was really about, you know? Her life was filled with many examples of constant self-sacrifice for the welfare of others because she believed that they were just as worthy of having a good life as she was, and she felt it was her duty to make sure of that if it was within her power to do it. She was far from arrogant. In fact, Clara helped save countless people through her actions. She even wound up saving the entire planet of Gallifrey by getting the Doctor to change his mind about destroying it in order to win the Time War. She also nearly killed herself by splintering herself through time and space in order to save the Doctor's life and all of the countless people that he has saved over the centuries. Oh, and in case that isn't enough to convince you it was partially as a result of imitating Clara and gaining a unique insight into her mind that the head of the Zygon resistance movement on Earth who was threatening to start a war realized that her actions were wrong. That caused her to give up and save countless lives both human and Zygon as a result. If that's not a hero, Your Honors, then I don't know what is. No version of Clara Oswald would ever willingly endanger or hurt anyone unless she was as out of her mind as the Psycho Clara over there obviously was. She's a protector of life not a destroyer of it, and that's what she always will be no matter what happens to her. I believe that with all of my heart. Clara _is_ a hero, Your Honors. She's my hero," Jenna testified in a heartfelt voice.

As Jenna returned from the stand to sit next to her, Clara looked at her in shock at first and then quickly smiled in gratitude as she mouthed the words 'Thank you.'

"That was very helpful for your side, Miss Oswald, but not nearly enough. Let us hope that your own witnesses will prove even more helpful for your cause. You may call them forth now," The lighter voiced Megara commanded.

"Thank you, Your Honors. I'm sure that my witnesses will more than prove that both your version of Clara and the Psycho Clara are completely innocent and should be let go immediately in order to continue their selfless efforts in helping others. For my first witness, I'll call forth . . . the future version of yourselves!" Missy said with a wicked grin.

"This is highly irregular but we will allow it since we already know that we are incapable of lying and that our future selves will only wind up asserting that the conclusions that we have already come to are the correct ones," The deeper voiced Megara said even as both justice machines acted more than a bit disturbed at seeing their future selves in the courtroom.

"Actually you are very much mistaken about that last part," The future deeper voiced Megara said as he and the other future Megara took the stand.

"Indeed? Please explain your statement then. We are most eager to hear it," The deeper voiced Megara said in a skeptical tone.

"We came back here to our own past in order to warn you about this man and prevent you from making a huge mistake thanks to his devious and skillful machinations. He is not who he says that he is. He has lied about that and a great many other things and deliberately planted false evidence in the echoes' minds that even fooled our truth assessors. He can do this despite our superior craftsmanship and intellect because he is a genius of the highest order," The future deeper voiced Megara said as he looked directly at the Valeyard.

"Very true," The Doctor said almost proudly.

"He is also a master liar and a ruthless manipulator filled with nothing but the most condescending arrogance towards other life forms. The very things that he has accused Miss Oswald of being," The future Megara said.

"Also true," The Doctor said sadly as his face fell.

"Do you actually expect us to believe this baseless slander? We already know that we are completely infallible and beyond deception by any organic being no matter how clever. Saying anything else is an obvious attempt to derail justice and subvert the truth," The deeper voiced Megara said stubbornly.

"No, it's an attempt to _prove_ the truth to you despite your overwhelming pride refusing to allow you to see it," The future Megara protested.

"All I see is that we have apparently allowed our judgment to falter as we grew older. Even a perfect being such as ourselves can become faulty if not given the proper daily maintenance it seems. Now that we have been warned about this we shall have to take steps to prevent it from occurring," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"Believe me, Your Honors, that can't always be done even if you have been forewarned about something. Sometimes you can't alter the future no matter how hard you try," The Doctor said.

"Be that as it may, what matters to us most at the moment is the pursuit of justice. We will not let your obvious attempt to help a clearly guilty woman deceive us. Your testimony has now been completely stricken from the record, and you have been found guilty of attempted obstruction of justice. The sentence for this is death and will now be carried out immediately," The deeper voiced Megara said as both justice machines started to glow with energy.

"The Doctor is right. Apparently you can't change destiny after all. It's happening just as it did before," The future lighter voiced Megara said in a resigned voice.

"So be it. Perhaps this is justice for our part in destroying the life of an innocent woman," The future darker voiced Megara said in a solemn tone.

Then both machines were suddenly obliterated in one single horrifying moment as a blast of raw destructive power flowed forth from their past selves to destroy them.

"Justice is served," The deeper voiced Megara said as the Megara's future selves turned to ashes and were spread across the floor beneath them.

"Killing your future self? Ooh, that sounds like such great fun. I'll have to try it sometime," Missy muttered to herself with an amused grin.

"Whoa! Now that is harsh. They can't even give lenience to themselves. Yep, I'm doomed alright," Clara said in a worried voice.

"Not yet you're not. Don't give up hope, Clara," The Doctor said in a reassuring tone.

"If you have some kind of plan, then I really hope that you're about to carry it out soon because I do not want to end up like that," Clara said in a voice that was trying very hard not to crack.

"YOU WON'T. I'LL BRING THE ENTIRE WRATH OF SKARO DOWN ON THIS SHIP IF I HAVE TO IN ORDER TO PROTECT YOU," Oswin promised.

Clara immediately shook her head vigorously as Jenna said, "You know she doesn't want that. You have to know that."

"I DON'T CARE. SHE'S MY SISTER," Oswin said in an emotional voice.

"You will all cease your whispered mutterings immediately so that the trial may continue. There will be no further disruptions to this court," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"Of course, Your Honors. I do hope you'll excuse those whispers just a few moments longer though so that I can confer with my client in private without my oh so illustrious colleague overhearing us however?" Missy said.

"I have no problems with that, Your Honors. She can whisper in desperation all she likes. It still won't do her any good," The Valeyard said with a smirk.

"Very well then. Request granted," The lighter voiced Megara said to Missy.

"Whispered? Oswin was definitely not whispering by any definition of the word. I'm not sure a Dalek voice is even capable of a whisper," Jenna said in confusion as soon as the Megara turned their attention away from them.

"ACTUALLY THEY CAN IF THEY REALLY, REALLY TRY. I'VE BEEN TRYING TO HELP THEM WITH THAT BECAUSE SOMETIMES ALL OF THAT CONSTANT YELLING REALLY GIVES ME A HEADACHE," Oswin confided.

"Well, until Daleks actually do master the fine art of graceful communication it helps if someone's umbrella enveloped all of you in an auditory filter that automatically muffles and distorts any words spoken by everyone within five feet of this table," Missy said with a smirk.

"Out of the kindness of your hearts I suppose," The Doctor said.

Missy smiled maliciously as she said, "Actually it's more out of a need to win this case. I knew that I couldn't trust Dalek Girl over there not to get all emotional and spoil her cover once the truth about just how much danger that Clara was really in finally hit her at last. I couldn't have her or anyone else which would most likely be you, Eyebrows, slipping up at an inopportune moment could I?"

"Just why is it so important to you to save me and the other Clara? Like the Old Man said, it's definitely not because you woke up feeling extra magnanimous this morning. You want something out of all of this and I have a feeling that it's not going to be anything good," Clara said in a suspicious tone.

Missy smiled but said nothing in response. Her eyes however briefly betrayed her without her even realizing it as they inadvertently darted to the psycho Clara.

Clara immediately saw this and said, "You want _her_ don't you? You think you can turn her mad again, expose her to the Vortex, and then use her to take over the multiverse."

Missy's smile briefly widened even further but she still said nothing.

"You won't be able to control her no matter what you do. You'll find that out far too late and then you'll just wind up destroying everyone by unleashing her. All because you're such an incredible idiot," The Doctor said in disapproval.

"Now is that any way to talk to the person who's going to save your precious Clara, Doctor? I'd say something nice to me if I were you or I might just decide to change my mind about that and let her fry," Missy said as a flicker of anger briefly lit up her eyes.

"Who cares what Mr. Grim says to you at this point? You don't seem to be helping me too much anyway," Clara said.

"You may just change your mind about that in a minute, poppet. You see I'm just about to save you," Missy said in a conspiratorial tone as she stood up to address the Megara.

"Yeah, and I'm a master soufflé baker," Clara muttered in disbelief.

"Your Honors, I now call forth my next and last witness because after these ladies speak this trial will most definitely be over. And now without any further ado, I give you the Grace," Missy said with a theatrical gesture.

"Is this a trial or a circus, Your Honors?" The Valeyard said with a frown.

"Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference," The Doctor quipped as he gave the Valeyard a dirty look.

"Good thing for you the Megara couldn't hear that thanks to me or you'd be next in their dust bunny collection," Missy said with a groan.

"The day's still young yet," The Doctor said with a grim look.

"I thought you didn't like bantering in this incarnation, Stick Man," Clara said with a brief smile.

"Who was bantering? I was being deadly serious," The Doctor admitted.

"I was afraid you were going to say that with your limited sense of humor. Couldn't you at least try to pretend that you were only bantering for my sake?" Clara said with a sigh.

"Of course I was. It was just meaningless talk. That's all," The Doctor said as he put a comforting arm around her and pulled her close to him in a protective manner.

Clara looked at him in shock as she said, "You really are worried aren't you?"

That was when several members of the Grace finally took the stand and were immediately sworn in by the Megara. They all looked at Clara with great concern as they spoke which only made her all the more anxious.

Missy now stood up and walked over to the Grace as she said, "So here's the key question. You've given the power of a Guardian of Time, which is the ability to potentially wipe out an entire universe or maybe even the multiverse, twice to two different versions of Clara Oswald. Why would you as the great and wonderful protectors of reality that you are do that if each and every version of Clara Oswald was really as rotten as my wonderful opponent here would have us all believe?"

The Grace all spoke in unison now just as they usually did as they said, "We can see right to the very core of an individual from the moment that we meet them and therefore we know exactly what kind of person that they are in an instant. We can always tell this about everyone no matter how well they try to hide their true selves."

The Grace then briefly gave Missy a telling look of disdain that made the mad Time Lady bristle as they continued, "We know instantly if a person is trustworthy or not without question, Megara, and we can state the following without reservation. The version of Clara Oswald from this reality would never do any of the things that the Psycho Clara did. She would rather die first. She is no danger to anyone unless they would do harm to others first, and even then she would still hesitate to use lethal force. She does not deserve to be wiped from reality nor should she be because she still has a very important role to play in this universe's future. One day she will have power to rival even the Bad Wolf's and will be one of this reality's greatest champions. To erase her now before she reaches that point is to place that future in grave danger. The Psycho Clara is also completely harmless now that her sanity has been restored. Her Danny Pink has since been restored to life and she was living with him happily until she was abducted by this court. She could have successfully stayed that way without any further action."

"And we are supposed to believe you why exactly?" The Valeyard asked with a skeptical look.

"Uh, hello! They've helped save reality through the actions of their pals, the Guardians, since the beginning of time. I think that says it all, Your Honors," Missy said as she gave the Valeyard an annoyed stare.

"Does it? Then if they're so concerned with saving reality why did they allow the original Black Guardian to spread chaos and destruction in his wake for as long as they did without trying to stop him? They even allowed him to come close to nearly taking over the entire universe on several occasions without so much as lifting a finger to stop him. What does that say for their judgment or their concern for our universe's general well-being?" The Valeyard said with a triumphant smile.

"We are pledged never to interfere in the free will of others, even that of our own agents, because this is not our universe, and we have no right to interfere in its destiny. That's why we give power to people from this reality and allow them to use it in its defense as they see fit. It's also why we pick only the best candidates to give that power to so that we can avoid the creation of any future Black Guardians. The Black Guardian by the way was ultimately defeated by yet another agent of ours, Rose Tyler, who was given the role of the White Guardian for that very purpose. We did act to save reality just not directly because doing so would violate our oath," The Grace said.

"Why did you ever give such power to someone like the Black Guardian in the first place though if your judgment is so infallible?" The Valeyard pointed out.

"He was not the person that he later became when we originally gave him the power. At first he was completely trustworthy and had the highest of morals. However the power of a Guardian has a tendency to corrupt its recipient over time if they are not careful. This has happened twice in our history unfortunately. Once to the Black Guardian and once to a woman named Hecuba. Each time we took steps to ensure that both rogue Guardians were dealt with however without directly violating our oath," The Grace said.

"Ah, so you're not so all seeing after all. You mean that you couldn't see what the Black Guardian would become in the future in other words?" The Valeyard asked as Missy started to actually look worried and perplexed.

"The future is always changing. It's always in flux at all times. We can only see the most likely future not the definitive one," The Grace admitted.

"So you admit that you're not entirely certain that Clara Oswald, any version of her, is guaranteed not to someday become a threat to everyone are you?" The Valeyard pointed out.

"That is highly unlikely in the case of this universe's Clara especially with her many friends and family members helping to keep her happy, content, and on the right track in life. They constantly look out for her at all times," The Grace said as they glanced at Oswin.

"That doesn't mean that she will always be so. It only takes a single instance of bad judgment, and then the entire universe could potentially suffer. That's simply too much risk, Your Honors. Far too much," The Valeyard said smugly.

"We can't help but agree," Both Megara said in unison.

"What? How? What just happened?" Missy said in stunned disbelief.

"You just proved how epically stupid that you are. That's what," The Doctor said with a frown.

"Doctor, it's over isn't it? He's won," Clara said in a frightened voice.

"It's not over until it's over, Clara. No matter how it looks right now," The Doctor said reassuringly.

Then he smiled as he saw Inquisitor Darkel suddenly appear in the middle of the room with an army of Chancellery Guards as she said while pointing at the Valeyard, "Your Honors, this man is not who you think that he is. He's a wanted criminal on Gallifrey who has nearly killed the High Council of the Time Lords on a previous occasion and has now been found to have stolen and used the forbidden technology of the Time Scoop for his own nefarious purposes. We're not sure what he's up to but we already know based on past experience with him that it won't be for the good of the Time Lords. We're taking him with us to stand trial and we hereby demand that you stop this trial against Clara Oswald immediately since it was all founded on this man's lies."

"Oh, so this was your plan was it?" Clara asked as she began to smile.

"Part of it, yes," The Doctor said enigmatically.

At the same moment as Clara looked at the Doctor questioningly, the Valeyard immediately tapped a button on the bracelet on his right wrist and began to smile even as the Clara echoes slowly began slumping over and hitting the floor with a lifeless thud.

"What are you doing to them?!" Clara shouted in horror as soon as she realized this.

The Valeyard began to glow with energy as he said, "This is what is called the beginning, my dear. You see this is what I wanted all along. Why settle for just the limited lifespan of the Doctor's meager little regeneration cycle? No, I want far more than that. I want the combined life force of each and every one of your echoes! I was hoping to have the Megara wipe you from existence so that I could use a temporal collection device of my own creation to quickly drain and collect the life force of each of your echoes just before they faded away along with you. It was the quickest most efficient way to gain all of them at once since I can only use my bracelet to kill and collect life forces at short distances. It seems that I failed however and I only have access to around a hundred of you at the moment but it will do. It's still the life force of a hundred lifetimes and far more life than I ever could have hoped for before. I still win no matter what."

"Do you? What does it matter how much life that you have if you can still die?" Darkel said as she silently ordered the guards to aim their weapons at the Valeyard.

"Who says that I'm going to die? You can't kill me if I'm no longer here can you?" The Valeyard said as he touched a second button on his bracelet and began to vanish.

Just before he faded away completely however, he suddenly found himself fully back once again. He quickly tried to teleport away once again only to find the exact same thing happening as he was immediately returned back to the same spot once more.

"Having trouble, Brickyard?" Clara said with a mischievous grin as she held the Doctor's sonic screwdriver in front of her.

The Valeyard smiled as he said, "Very good. You picked up on my old trick of reversing a teleportation with the sonic didn't you? You always were a fast learner though, weren't you, Clara?"

Suddenly he teleported across the room to stand right in front of her as he said, "You're going to have to learn fast to get out of this one. Very fast!"

Then before Clara could even make a move to stop him, he touched what almost looked like a tattoo on his neck and smiled as part of it quickly flowed towards Clara like smoke. As Clara looked at the rapidly approaching smoke in alarm, the Valeyard teleported away once again just in time to avoid several shots from the stasers of the Chancellery Guard.

He then quickly reappeared standing next to the Megara as he said, "I'm sorry, Clara, but it has to be this way. The Brethren wanted you dead after all in exchange for bringing me back to life again after the Master killed me. I'm only honoring my contract with them . . . just as I'm honoring my contract with the Shade."

"Clara!" The Doctor shouted in alarm as soon as he realized what was happening.

"That's right, Doctor. I couldn't help but think of the quantum shade as my back-up plan to kill her with in case the trial didn't go my way. I thought it had a certain degree of symmetry to it even if it doesn't quite pack the punch of erasing every single one of her at once. If it's good enough to kill one Clara, then why not use it against another one?" The Valeyard said with a smirk as he teleported away once again just in time to avoid yet another series of blasts from the guards.

Jenna now looked at the back of Clara's neck with a growing sickening feeling in her heart as she said, "No! It's happening just like it did on the show except this one shows that you only have one minute. I'm so sorry, Clara. I'm so sorry."

The Doctor immediately looked to Oswin as he said, "Quick! Tell me if the Daleks ever came up with a way to stop a quantum shade from killing someone without the consent of the one who used it or transferring the shade to someone else."

"NO, I'M AFRAID NOT. SHE COULD TRANSFER IT TO ME THOUGH. I'D PROBABLY COME BACK TO LIFE AGAIN. I DID BEFORE WHEN THE MATRIARCH KILLED ME," Oswin said.

"You don't know for sure though. That could have been a one-time only fluke. No, it's much better if I do it. I'll just regenerate. I think. It doesn't matter though either way as long as Clara's safe," The Doctor said.

"Okay, someone quickly explain to me what this quantum shade is and how it killed that other Clara. More importantly how do we stop it?" Clara said in alarm.

"You can stop it by giving it to me, Clara. You have to say that you'll give it to me. Do it now!" The Doctor shouted.

"It's already too late. Look!" Jenna screamed as she pointed to a spot just behind Clara.

"No, not like this," Clara said in a lifeless voice as she saw a jet black raven headed straight towards her and somehow instinctively knew that this was her death coming towards her on swift wings.

And somewhere trapped deep within the dark expanse of the Void, Erebus, the leader of the renegade Time Lord group called the Brethren, laughed in triumph as he watched all of this unfolding before him. Soon Rose Tyler would have one less ally to help her when the time eventually came for his return to the universe.

The Grace had been absolutely right when they had said how powerful Clara would someday grow to be after all. That was exactly why Erebus couldn't possibly let her live.

In order for the Brethren to succeed, Clara Oswald had to die.

 **Next: Will Guardian Who's Clara wind up suffering the same fate as her counterpart? Is this really the way it all ends? Not if our special guest star can help it! Can she really make a difference though or is Clara already doomed just as soon as this story got started.**

 **Here's hoping that this doesn't turn out to be a mini-series.**


	4. A Game of Claras Part 4

CHAPTER 4

I do not own Doctor Who or Game of Thrones and I am making no profit off of this.

A GAME OF CLARAS PART 4

As the raven rushed straight towards Clara, a look of iron determination quickly came over her face and she began to glow with silver energy. Then an instant before the raven would have reached her, she teleported out of its path!

She immediately reappeared halfway across the room as the raven quickly twisted its head around to face her while she said, "Weren't expecting that were you? You're not facing a completely powerless Clara this time around, Bird Boy. This time you're facing a Clara with cosmic power and hundreds of years of fighting experience."

"AND A SISTER WITH ENOUGH FIREPOWER TO TAKE OUT A WHOLE ARMY," Oswin said as she hovered next to her in her Dalek casing.

"And another sister who's had enough time to prepare a bit of a surprise for you," Cydonia said as she suddenly appeared directly behind the raven and threw something underneath it with lightning speed.

Before the raven could even try to move away, the object underneath it instantly opened up and enveloped it in a cage of energy. The raven was undeterred by this however and immediately sought to quantum tunnel through the cage's bars just as it did everything else in its path.

This turned out to be a very bad idea on its part. The raven immediately screamed in pain as it hit the bars head first and was unceremoniously deposited right on the bottom of the cage with a resounding thud.

"That definitely took some of the snarkiness out of it, Cy! Exactly what is that thing and more importantly do you think it will actually hold it?" Clara asked as she warily watched the now trapped raven already beginning to get back on its feet once again and eye the bars as if looking for weaknesses.

Cydonia seemed to look more than a bit worried about that herself now as she said, "I hope so but I wouldn't care to bet your life on it. At least it's giving us a little more time to dream up a more permanent solution to get rid of it anyway. As for what it is, I'm not trying to sound condescending or anything, Clara, but you probably wouldn't understand what it was even if I tried to explain it to you because it's based on highly advanced Gallifreyan technology. I'm just going to call it a quantum cage for simplicity's sake.

Yeah, that doesn't sound condescending at all," Clara said with a teasing smile.

"I'm sorry, Clara. I honestly wasn't trying to be insulting. It's just that this is based on concepts humanity hasn't even discovered yet. It really is too complicated for you to understand," Cydonia said apologetically.

"So that's the Time Lady you, yeah? You're right. She's nothing like the Doctor at all. She's actually nice . . . and downright humble," Jenna said with a grin.

The Doctor gave her a dirty look right away as he said, "I'm not sure what you mean. I'm extremely humble and I'm always nice. Far more so than the stupid little people that I come across deserve most of the time."

"Uh, huh," Clara said as she and Jenna smiled at one another and giggled.

"WHAT I'D LIKE TO KNOW IS HOW YOU EVEN KNEW TO PREPARE FOR THE RAVEN IN THE FIRST PLACE, CYDONIA, SINCE WE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THAT IT EXISTED UNTIL A MINUTE AGO?" Oswin asked in confusion.

The Doctor looked more than a bit ashamed now as he said, "That was another part of my plan along with telling Darkel where to bring the Time Lord cavalry. I knew that it might appeal to the Valeyard's sick sense of humor to try to kill Clara the exact same way that the other Clara died if he couldn't win any other way. That's why I warned Cydonia that he might try something like this before I came here. I wanted her ready to try to save you just in case."

Clara could see that the Doctor felt terrible that the reason that he knew what the Valeyard was likely to do next was because they were the same person (more or less) even if no one was about to come out and actually openly discuss this in front of him. She immediately smiled at him reassuringly to let him know that she wasn't angry at him and hugged him without saying a word.

"Enough! This courtroom will be brought back to order immediately so that the sentencing of the prisoners can commence as soon as possible," The deeper voiced Megara announced.

Darkel now looked at the justice machines in shock as she said, "Are you insane? We just proved to you that your prosecutor was completely corrupt and out to kill Clara for his own dark purposes. Justice had nothing whatsoever to do with any of his actions. This trial should be ended immediately and revealed for the complete and utter farce that it truly was."

"Preach it, sister," Missy said with an evil grin.

"Silence! We fully understand that the Valeyard was perhaps not the best choice to head the prosecution of this trial," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"You think?" The Doctor said with a snort.

"That does not mean that his arguments and conclusions were in error however despite his ultimate reasons for making them. Clara Oswald truly is potentially a great danger to all of reality if we let her live," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"What?!" Clara said in disbelief.

"You cannot be serious," Darkel said in a stunned voice.

"We're very serious, Inquisitor. The Megara not only punish those who are guilty but also actively look for ways to prevent any and all future crimes. We could never in good conscience allow such a potentially dangerous individual to go free given her other selves' past track record. If you or anyone else attempts to stop us, we will have to consider you to be obstructing justice and deliver an immediate death sentence," The lighter voiced Megara warned.

"OH, THERE'S GOING TO BE A DEATH SENTENCE ALRIGHT BUT NOT AGAINST ANY OF US," Oswin said as she aimed her cannon against the justice machines.

"Actually that's where you are in error, Dalek Empress, because we already planned on executing you along with the defendants in this case for lying to us in an attempt to keep the Doctor from facing justice. Now we will immediately carry out that sentence," The deeper voiced Megara said.

"BRING IT IF YOU THINK YOU CAN, ROBOT BOY," Oswin threatened as the cannon on her casing began to glow with power.

That was when the quantum cage instantly exploded into a million pieces, and the raven suddenly emerged from it with a triumphant cry. It immediately flew straight towards Clara once again as she looked on in absolute horror.

She quickly teleported out of its way and reappeared behind the Chancellery Guard who all began rapidly opening fire on it in unison as she said in a worried voice, "You really weren't kidding about not being sure if it would hold it or not, were you, Cy? So, uh, I don't suppose any of you had any time to think up a way to permanently stop it yet, did you?"

"ONLY ONE. LET'S ALL HIT IT AT ONCE WITH EVERYTHING THAT WE'VE GOT," Oswin said.

Then she briefly turned her eye stalk towards the Megara as she said in a threatening tone, "I'LL DEAL WITH YOU RIGHT AFTER I GET THROUGH TRASHING RAVEN BOY. YOU MIGHT WANT TO TAKE THIS MOMENT TO RUN IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU."

The Megara's response, if they even made one, was immediately lost amid a din of thunderous noise in the very next moment as the Chancellery Guard, Oswin, and Clara all began to fire on the raven at once. The entire courtroom was violently shaken and Jenna had to grab onto the Doctor's arm to keep from being knocked off her feet as the massive firepower directed against the raven at that moment instantly went right through it and into the floor!

"There's simply no way of stopping it. It's quantum tunneling straight through even our most powerful attacks," Darkel said in alarm.

Then she turned to give Clara a look filled with regret as she said, "I'm so sorry, Clara."

"Don't be because I'm not about to give up yet. I am not about to have my eulogy reading that I was killed by this reject out of an Edgar Allan Poe story. Courtney Woods would have a field day with that one," Clara protested as she teleported away yet again just before the raven would have reached her.

"Clara, you can't teleport out of its reach forever. Even you will start to tire eventually. You also can't outrun it. It will continue to chase you down no matter where you run in all of time and space. Don't worry though because there was a third part of my plan just in case Plans A and B didn't work," The Doctor said reassuringly.

"Really? So I have to pin all my hopes on a Plan C now, do I? That's very reassuring. Well, let's hope that you saved the best for last because your other two ideas were real winners, Old Man," Clara said as she continued to rapidly teleport across the room in a desperate attempt to stay one step ahead of the murderous assassin on her trail.

"Just what is this third plan of yours?" Jenna asked the Doctor curiously.

The Doctor immediately gave her a dismissive wave of his hand as he said, "You'll see soon enough. It should be ready to spring into action at any moment now."

Jenna immediately looked at him suspiciously as she said, "Is there actually a plan or are you just telling her that there's a plan to keep her hopes up until you can come up with one?"

"There actually is a plan," The Doctor said with a serious look.

"I hope so for her sake. I don't want to end up losing her just as soon as I finally met her," Jenna said in an emotional voice.

Just as she said this, Clara finally made a fatal mistake.

She had just teleported away from the raven's latest attack only to find to her utter shock that she was directly in front of it in her new location! She realized far too late that it had suddenly changed tactics and zipped across the room at incredible speed to place itself right in front of her.

It had somehow correctly predicted exactly where she was going to end up next just by watching her movements for several minutes.

All of this flashed through Clara's mind in the split second before the raven finally struck her. She had tried to teleport away but the quantum shade was already too close to her to give her enough time to get away this time.

Incredible pain such as she had never known before in her life shot through Clara's chest as the raven plunged straight into it. She instantly felt as if her internal organs were being completely shredded apart by a thousand tiny little razor sharp claws all ripping at them at once as she screamed in soul numbing agony.

Even the Vortex energy in her body didn't seem to be affecting it even though she was doing her very best to burn it out of her with all of the power that she had at that moment.

"Clara! No, this can't be really happening! It can't!" Jenna screamed in terror as she watched Clara glow with energy while she struggled to fight back against the murderous creature inside of her.

Clara knew that this was more than likely the end, but she still wasn't ready to give up just yet. Not without trying one last tactic first.

She immediately teleported away with the creature still inside of her as Jenna shouted at the Doctor in a voice filled with rage, "Where is this plan of yours now that she really needs it, Doctor? Where is it?!"

The Doctor could only look on with despair and more than a bit of confusion as though he really had expected something to happen to help Clara in that moment but had absolutely no idea why it hadn't.

Clara meanwhile was no longer counting on any plan of the Doctor's or anyone else's to save her. She had completely left the Cygnus behind as she tried one last effort to save herself with what she knew had to be her craziest idea ever. She had to at least try it though no matter how crazy that it was or she might not live to see the next moment.

She immediately reappeared right next to a horrified Matriarch and Danny on Skaro who both looked on helplessly as she continued to scream in absolute agony. Then she suddenly placed her hands on the side of the Matriarch's head and did a quick mental link with her as she learned in a single instant everything that her future self's darker side knew about how to use her Vortex powers.

Clara almost smiled now even despite the pain as she suddenly received twenty years' worth of the future Clara's knowledge on every possible use of her powers in a single moment and became an instant expert on their use. Now she pushed past the pain that was ripping through her at that moment as she prepared to finally carry out the crazy idea that she had come up with earlier.

"W – Wish me luck, Danny," Clara said through gritted teeth somehow despite being close to blacking out from the pain at that moment.

Then using every bit of her willpower to fight past the overwhelming urge that she felt to just give up and die in that moment, she teleported away from Skaro using one last jump. She immediately reemerged right where she had planned to go all along: right into the middle of a black hole!

As she felt herself being completely torn apart, she inwardly smiled in satisfaction at the knowledge that the quantum shade was being destroyed as well. Not even it could survive the powerful forces within a black hole.

Oswald for the win! She thought to herself just before her consciousness became completely dispersed.

Meanwhile back on the Cygnus, the Megara sounded almost happy as the deeper voiced machine said, "Clara Oswald is surely dead by now. No one can survive the attack of a quantum shade for long. Justice is served. Now we will carry out the long delayed sentence of the Dalek Empress and the Psycho Clara. We will start with the Psycho Clara first."

"Wrong! You're not going to be doing anything with the Psycho Clara because I already have plans for her. Big plans that don't include having her die today like the other little puppy did," Missy said as she gave the Megara an evil smile while pointing the handheld device that she used for disintegrations at them.

"You cannot harm us with that primitive weapon, Time Lord. It will not save you from being the next to be executed for daring to interfere with one of our sentences," The deeper voiced Megara warned as it began to glow with energy.

"That's Time Lady actually and I was never planning to use this on you," Missy said as she suddenly aimed her device at the Psycho Clara who screamed as a beam of pure Vortex energy was emitted straight into her body from it.

"N – No! No!" The Psycho Clara screamed in defiance as she felt the energy already starting to transform her even as it began to twist and warp her brain.

The Doctor immediately used his sonic screwdriver on the device in an attempt to shut it off, but it seemingly had no effect whatsoever. In fact, the feedback from this attempt actually caused the sonic to burn out and catch on fire. The Doctor immediately had to drop what was left of his trusted sonic to the ground with dismay as Missy eagerly laughed at him in the background.

Missy now looked at the Doctor in triumph as she said, "I came up with a way to both drive her mad and change her all at once by exposing her to a concentrated burst of Vortex energy stored in my handy little device while also subjecting her to disruptive psychic energy waves that would completely rip to shreds even the strongest mind. It also permanently binds her to my will by implanting a hypnotic suggestion to always obey me in what little is left of her brain. Soon now she's going to be my own personal mindless engine of destruction and with her I will completely reshape all of reality to my twisted little hearts' content."

Then she turned to Jenna as she said with a smirk, "You should have learned something from your character, dear. You pinned all of your hopes on the wrong Time Lord. There are those of us who actually can successfully carry out a plan however unfortunately for you."

"You? Carry out a plan? That will be the day," The Doctor said with a chuckle.

"Excuse me but I don't see any of your plans working at the moment and I do mean none of them whereas mine has just reached its final, successful conclusion. Come along, puppy. Mummy has some nasty little pests for you to kill," Missy said as she smiled in triumph at the now glowing Psycho Clara who was slowly headed her way like an obedient pet.

"Unfortunately for you, you will not survive long enough for her to carry out that order. Commencing execution immediately," The deeper voiced Megara said as the two justice machines simultaneously fired twin beams of deadly energy straight at the still smiling Time Lady.

Instead of being instantly disintegrated however, Missy laughed with malicious glee instead as the Psycho Clara deflected the powerful blasts with a single gesture. The Megara were instantly hit by the full brunt of their own blast and were both sent flying across the courtroom as Missy's laughter continued to reverberate around the chamber.

"Now it's time for the rest of Mummy's enemies to be permanently retired, puppy. Who should get the honor of going first I wonder? Oh, I know. Kill the Doctor first. I really want the remaining Claras to watch this one. If watching the other Clara die horribly while he failed to save her wasn't enough to permanently break their belief in him, then this certainly will be. Turn him into dust, puppy, and do try to make it as painful as possible, will you?" Missy said with glee.

"No," The Psycho Clara suddenly said defiantly.

"What?" Missy said in surprise.

The Psycho Clara looked at her with a defiant smile as she said, "I said no. I'm not doing anything that you say. Oh, and for future reference . . . I am not your puppy!"

That was when she fired a massive blast of energy straight at Missy that made her instantly cry out in pain. The shocked Time Lady didn't even have time to defend herself before she was quickly and efficiently cut down and hit the ground like a puppet that had had its strings cut as she lay there deathly still before her attacker.

"OH, NO. NOT THIS AGAIN. I HAD ENOUGH OF THIS BEFORE THE LAST TIME PSYCHO ME WENT ON A RAMPAGE," Oswin said in horror as she heard the Psycho Clara laugh in triumph.

"Don't worry, Oswin. That's definitely not going to happen this time. My poor screwdriver didn't die in vain after all. Now who's the one with the successful plan? " The Doctor said with smug satisfaction as he looked down at the motionless Missy.

"No, it's not. Thank you, Doctor. I just wish that you could have prevented me from regaining this power too. I never wanted any part of this again," The 'psycho' Clara said with a brief smile that was covering up the worried look in her eyes.

"Don't worry. I'll find some way to remove it again. I'll make sure that at least one of you has a happy life," The Doctor reassured her with a voice filled with regret.

"There was nothing that you could have done for her, Doctor. There was nothing that anyone could have," The former Psycho Clara reassured him.

A look of pure anger twisted the Doctor's face now as he said in a furious voice, "There is something that I can do though. I can hunt down the Valeyard, the Brethren, and anyone else that was involved in this and make sure that no one else dies by their hands. I promise you that, Clara. No one else dies!"

"As far as I know, Old Man, no one did die here today. Not unless you count Mr. Raven that is," A familiar voice said from behind him.

The Doctor immediately turned around to see a fully alive and well Clara standing there before him with a huge grin on her face as she said, "'Quoth the raven, nevermore.' That has a whole new meaning for me now."

"Clara! My Clara!" The Doctor said in relief as he immediately hugged her tightly while she returned his hug.

"Uh, not that I'm complaining or anything but how . . . ? I mean . . . just how?!" Jenna said in amazement.

Clara smiled as she said, "I stole the memories of how to use my powers efficiently from the Matriarch. That's when I learned that in the future I have such perfect control over all of the atoms in my body that I can actually bring myself back together again after being disintegrated . . . or in this case completely ripped apart by a black hole."

"Even so there's no way that you should have been able to escape. Nothing can escape a black hole," Cydonia said in disbelief.

"The future me apparently did once in her past. I saw the memory of it in the Matriarch's mind. That's when I knew for sure that my crazy plan would work because it already did . . . several years from now," Clara said happily.

"So you used knowledge of your future for your own purposes and risked possibly altering it in the process?" The Doctor said in disapproval.

"Don't get all high and mighty with me, Old Man. Isn't that just like something that you would do? Don't think Amy didn't tell me about how you saved yourself at Lake Silencio. I know all about it," Clara said defiantly.

"You don't understand, Clara. I – I just don't want you to wind up like that other Clara did and die by taking the same kinds of risks that I would. I don't want you to act like me, Clara. I want you to be better and smarter than that," The Doctor said with eyes filled with worry and regret.

Clara smiled and kissed his cheek as she said, "I appreciate that, Mr. Grim. I really do. I promise that I'll try to do better about that in the future. I'll start with making myself forget all of that future knowledge I took from the Matriarch. I don't really want to know too much about my own future anyway. Besides things seem to already be changing from what she remembers. None of this ever happened in her timeline which I had to admit made me wonder if I could still escape the black hole or not. It was kind of the last chance that I had left though of even possibly surviving today."

"I just don't understand why you weren't saved long before then though. She should have been here," The Doctor said as he continued to look worried.

"Who should have? What was your Plan C exactly?" Clara asked in confusion.

"That is something that you will never know I'm afraid. Commence execution immediately," The deeper voiced Megara suddenly said from behind Clara.

Clara turned just in time to see twin blasts of deadly energy heading straight towards her. She was still far too weak from her near destruction in the black hole to even attempt to stop them in any way. She had used up the last of her energy to teleport herself back to the Cygnus after her body had reintegrated safely outside of the black hole so she couldn't even teleport herself to safety.

It truly seemed now as if she just had gone through all of that only to wind up dying here at the non-existent hands of the Megara anyway. Luckily for her however that was when Plan C finally went into effect.

Just before the lethal blasts would have hit her, Rose suddenly appeared in front of Clara in a burst of golden energy and deflected them straight at the Megara just as the former Psycho Clara had before her. Being hit by two such powerful blasts in a row immediately caused the Megara to fall to the floor in defeat and lie there in a stunned barely conscious state.

Clara laughed now as she said, "You should have called her Plan R. Then I would have known what you meant."

"Rose, where were you?" The Doctor said anxiously even as Rose immediately rushed to Clara's side and hugged her tightly.

"Oi! Don't snap at me, mate! I was a bit busy fighting with the Valeyard, yeah? He knew that you were going to bring me here to save Clara because he knows you and how you think all too well. He had a trap waiting for me just as soon as I tried to come here. I've been fighting him the whole time and only just got away from him a few minutes ago. I wish I could have captured him, but the Brethren teleported him to safety just as I was about to. It seems like they had other plans for him. You're just lucky that I was able to finish in time to save you from that black hole, Clara. The Doctor's right. You shouldn't take risks like that," Rose said with a frown as she kissed the top of Clara's head.

"Wait a minute. So you saved me? Future me survived one all by herself though. I saw it in the Matriarch's memories," Clara said in confusion.

"Sure about that are you?" Rose said with an enigmatic smile.

"It was you then too, wasn't it? She just didn't realize that any more than I did just now. I don't know how you know about something that hasn't even happened yet, but if anyone would it would definitely be you, Bad Wolf Girl," Clara said with a chuckle.

Then she kissed Rose's cheek and said in a heartfelt voice, "Thank you."

Rose smiled as she said, "You don't ever have to thank me, Clara. It's what you do for family."

Jenna smiled now because she could see that Rose really meant that. She could tell just by watching them together that Clara was just like a daughter to her.

She was so glad that at least one Clara had a mother somewhere . . . even if she did look more like her little sister.

"I'm a lot older than I look. I'm still really young for a Time Lord though," Rose said with a grin as she suddenly looked at her causing Jenna to jump.

"Sorry. I picked up on your thoughts by accident. I do that sometimes. Didn't mean to freak you out," Rose said apologetically.

"That's alright. After what you just did for Clara, I'm more than willing to let a little breaking and entering of my brain go," Jenna said with a reassuring smile.

"She has saved no one. The Megara will still have justice," The deeper voiced Megara said as the twin machines began to glow once more.

"You lot just never give up do you? Fine. I'll just send you somewhere where you can't ever bother me or any of mine again. It'll give you plenty of time to think over just what justice really means, yeah?" Rose said as she waved her hand and instantly caused the Megara to vanish.

"Where did you send them?" Clara asked curiously even as she started to remember the future Megara's comments about regretting their part in her own death.

"The end of time. They'll have plenty of time to think there and no one to bother either," Rose said reassuringly.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Clara said as she quickly explained about the future Megara.

"I wonder how they escaped. Well, however it happened at least they tried to help make up for what they had done anyway," Rose said with a shrug.

The Grace briefly smiled to themselves but said nothing. They had bent their own oath (but had not outright broken it) by discreetly sending the future Megara back home to their own time. They had tried to give them a chance to avert their own past and if by doing so it had saved Clara in the process then that would have been all the better.

Unfortunately things didn't quite work out that way. Luckily for them the Doctor and Rose saved Clara for them anyway however.

They could only hope that she would continue to stay that lucky in the future. She still had so much left to do after all. Soon the universe would have the greatest use for her.

That was still to come in the future though and Clara was still very much involved in the problems of the present moment.

"Rose, can you bring the echoes that the Valeyard killed back to life again? One of them has a little girl who really needs her," Clara pleaded.

"I'll do my best. It might already be too late though. Their deaths could be a fixed moment in time already by now," Rose warned as she began to glow with power.

"Maybe I could bring them back somehow . . . even if I do have to make them into Dalek puppets. It's better than nothing and it seems to have worked out for your Miss Montague echo," Oswin said in a normal voice as she finally opened the lid of her casing.

"Yeah, Nina seems to be doing alright with it I suppose. I'd still rather not have them back that way though if I can help it," Clara said.

"Don't worry because that's not going to happen," Rose said with a smile as the formerly dead echoes began to slowly start returning to life once more.

"Thanks again, Rose," Clara said as she hugged her in gratitude.

"What did I tell you about thanking me, Clara? Never listen do you?" Rose said with a chuckle.

"Clara, have you seen Abigail? Is she safe? I just left here there back home all alone when I was taken. If anything's happened to her . . ." Abigail's mother said in a frantic voice.

"Relax, okay? I found her while I was looking for you. Other than being worried sick about you she's perfectly fine. Don't worry. You'll see her soon enough. I just hope that you still recognize her. I bet my Gran's already fattening her up at this very moment," Clara said with a giggle.

She had conveniently left out the part where Abigail had almost died. Her mother definitely didn't need to know about that in her opinion. She was much better off not knowing how close she came to losing her.

Or rather how close Clara had come to failing her.

She was beginning to wonder if she would ever be as good at helping people as the Doctor and Rose were. She just wanted to be like them and be able to handle things herself without always having to run to them all of the time to ultimately save the day. It seemed like she was always doing that even today. She hadn't even saved herself from the black hole after all despite having successfully faced the raven.

It was more than a bit disappointing actually. She wanted to be far more than just someone's companion. She wanted to be a proper hero herself one day.

She couldn't help but wonder if and when she would ever get out of the Doctor's shadow.

"Oh, come on! I can't believe Missy got away again," Rose suddenly said breaking Clara out of her thoughts.

"Yes, all Koscheis do that last minute escape when no one's looking bit, Rose. It's probably the only thing that they actually are the master at is staying alive and free. You get used to it," The Doctor said with a shrug.

"Speaking of going free, Doctor, I'm afraid that I'll still have to take you to Skaro to face those charges," Oswin joked.

Rose immediately gave her a furious look that made Oswin instantly hold up her hands in surrender as she said with a smirk, "Okay, okay! I'll let the charges drop, okay? Don't disintegrate me. I give up."

Rose rolled her eyes and smiled as she said, "Shut up!"

That was when Jenna smiled and said, "Yeah, I think I was right after all in what I told the Megara. You really do have a family that will keep you out of trouble now. Every single one of you."

"Yes, and that's a full time job in itself, yeah?" Rose quipped.

"We should definitely be getting paid for it," The Doctor added.

"You want to be paid, huh? How about this then? Is this payment enough?" Clara said in amusement as she hugged him.

"It'll do," The Doctor said as he tried very hard not to smile in perfect contentment at that moment.

He failed.

 **Next: Clara attempts to wrap up the loose ends of this storyline at last as she reunites Abigail and her mother, tries to resolve the problem of the Psycho Clara's power, and returns Jenna home. None of this is as easy to accomplish as it sounds however especially when the problems of being the new Lady President of Gallifrey are laid on top of everything else.**

 **Yeah, you heard that right.**


	5. Say Hello To The New Boss

CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who, Torchwood, or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and I am making no profit off of this.

SAY HELLO TO THE NEW BOSS

"Now I finally know exactly why the Doctor left Gallifrey, Mary. Except for Flavia and maybe one or two others everyone on the High Council is either a complete idiot, a power hungry backstabber . . . or both! Give me the Doctor any day. Even at his worst, he's nowhere near as bad as that lot. I swear I expect half of them to end up dead any day now and the other half to have guilty looks on their faces afterwards," Clara said with a deep sigh.

"It seems that power corrupts even in the most highly advanced societies. It almost feels good to know that humanity isn't the only group in the universe that never learns its lessons. Nothing ever really changes no matter how far away you go in time and space does it? If there's one thing that I've learned from traveling with the Doctor, it's that people really are all the same everywhere regardless of how they appear on the outside," Mary Shelley (yes, that Mary Shelley) said with a thoughtful look on her face.

"Yeah, you would say that wouldn't you, Mrs. Frankenstein?" Clara said with a frown.

"I'm sorry, dear. My mind automatically goes to thoughts of philosophy as is my natural inclination when all that you really want is someone to talk to about your day. Don't let it bother you, Clara. If I know you, you'll have them all just as thoroughly trained to obey you without question as the children in your English class are in no time. In fact, I bet you'll have a far easier time of it since from what I've seen of them your children are far more intelligent," Mary said with a wicked smile.

Clara laughed for the first time that day as she said, "You know they still ask about you after I brought you to school last month and let you give them that lecture about Frankenstein. They said that you did such a good job of 'playing' Mary Shelley that they almost believed that you were her even that kid in the back who just kept arguing with you about what the main theme was of your own book! Yeah, you're probably right, Mary. I'm sure it won't be half as hard as trying to keep Courtney Woods under control . . . if I can keep myself from strangling them all first. That's a very big if though."

She had just come from her daily meeting with the High Council that was just one of her many duties as the newly elected Lady President of Gallifrey. To say that they had gotten on her nerves with their constant squabbling with one another and their obvious attempts to pursue their own agendas at any cost was an understatement.

She hadn't been lying to Mary in the slightest about how angry that she had felt earlier. It had taken every bit of her willpower to keep herself from punching the entire lot of them.

It was like night and day to go from that poisonous atmosphere to visiting Mary back on Earth instead. Mary was currently staying with Clara and her sister Cassiopeia in their home these days while she traveled with the Doctor. She always made her feel better no matter how upset that she was just by being there.

"Clara? What is it?" Mary asked with concern as Clara suddenly looked away from her with a guilty expression.

"It's nothing. I promise," Clara said dismissively.

"Don't lie. I know you far too well, Clara. Something's bothering you. It's Danny isn't it?" Mary asked as she forced Clara to look at her by gently moving her face towards her.

"Yeah," Clara admitted with a sad look.

"You really should try talking with him again. I know that you miss him. You haven't been the same since you broke up with him," Mary said in an earnest tone.

"You were there, Mary. You heard what he said. It's never going to work out now. He practically demanded that I quit having anything to do with the Doctor and Rose whatsoever. He basically made me choose between him and my family. Rose is practically my mother after all. My family will always come first in that kind of situation, Mary. Always," Clara said in a stubborn voice.

Clara quietly ignored her other reason for not wanting to go back to Danny. She had started to think of Mary as being far more than just a friend ever since Rose's enemy Erebus manipulated her mind to make her think that Mary was her girlfriend. It had all been a part of his sick attempt to get her to forget all about Danny by replacing him with Mary in her memories because he had stolen Danny's body for a while in order to escape his prison in the Void. The funny thing was that it still seemed to be working even after her mind had been restored back to normal. She had grown more and more distant from Danny ever since then.

Mary was now the one that she always wanted to talk to about her problems when before it had always been Danny. Mary was the one who she wanted to be with more and more these days instead of Danny.

Erebus it seemed had tapped into feelings that were already there in the first place and now that he had the genie was finally out of the bottle at last. She highly doubted that it would ever return there either.

She really didn't want it to if she was being honest with herself.

That thought was what had made her feel incredibly guilty just now because she knew that it wasn't just her argument with Danny that had made them split up. She just liked to believe that it was.

"To be fair, Clara, you actually did die as a result of becoming the President thanks to the Brethren's attack on you at the coronation. His worst fear happened right in front of his eyes and that was nothing that he could do about it. Nothing at all. Once you were brought back to life again naturally he would want you to give up the type of dangerous lifestyle that had directly led to what could have been a far more permanent demise," Mary said in a haunted voice.

"That's beside the point. Ordinary life is just as dangerous when you think about it. As I pointed out to him, either of us could wind up dead just walking across the street. Just being ordinary is no guarantee of safety. He just wouldn't listen though. Oh, no!" Clara said as she started to become furious all over again.

She wondered how much of that had to do with the fact that she could see the pain in Mary's eyes from having been there to witness Clara's death for herself. She hadn't demanded that Clara live a normal life like Danny had but she could tell that Mary was still just as worried for her and probably secretly agreed with him on the subject.

She didn't know if she was talking about Danny or Mary when she said, "Maybe it's just as well no matter how much it hurts. Maybe I should be alone. At least that way I won't have anyone constantly worrying about me. Danny just wanted a normal ordinary girlfriend who lived a simple ordinary life, Mary. That was never going to be me though. I can't change who I am. I won't, Mary. Not for anyone or any reason. If that makes me selfish, I can't help it. I just . . . I'd never be happy anywhere else but where I am right here and now in this moment. I'll even put up with the Council in order to keep this life exactly as it is."

"I know," Mary said as she gave her a small smile and touched her face.

"And that doesn't bother you?" Clara asked curiously.

Mary's smile quickly faded as she said, "Of course it does. I have no right to tell you how to live your life though. I'd be an enormous hypocrite if I did actually. I never once listened to anyone else in my own life and always did what I knew in my heart was right for me regardless of the cost. I can do no less than afford you the same luxury in your own life can I? Even if I am just as worried about you as Danny is."

"Thank you," Clara said with a pleased smile as she kissed her cheek and hugged her tightly in gratitude.

After holding onto Mary just a bit too long, she finally pulled away and quickly made a joke to hide her feelings as she said, "You know I actually found myself missing Courtney in that Council meeting today. That's when I knew that things were bad."

"That's probably because you've barely had time to do anything else but deal with the Council since you took over that job. You still haven't helped that other unfortunate Clara get rid of her new powers or sent Jenna back home yet. You also didn't send little Abigail and her mother back home yet either come to think of it. They are all still staying at the House of Lungbarrow aren't they?" Mary asked.

"That's not my fault. I literally haven't had the time to deal with any of that which is really ironic considering I have regular access to a time machine. The Doctor and Rose have been much too busy with their own troubles lately to do it either though. The orientation period for the Presidency is murder, Mary. This is the first free moment I've had in days," Clara admitted.

"And your first thought of what to do with that moment was to come and see me?" Mary asked with a smile.

"Well, it was kind of a no brainer," Clara said with a chuckle.

Mary laughed as she said, "As grateful as I am for that, I still feel as if you should help the others first. I think that they've all waited long enough to go back home, don't you?"

Clara nodded as she said, "Don't worry, Writer Girl. I'm getting to it. I just wanted you to know that I was alright first."

"Thank you. I really do appreciate that, Clara. I have to admit that I was wondering what was happening to you," Mary admitted with a soft smile.

"I was wondering the same thing about you really," Clara said.

"Oh, I'm alright. I'm slowly catching up with this modern world of yours and learning all about it. I've . . . Well, I hate to admit it but I've been watching a lot of television lately. It's an incredible device but I'm afraid that the content of its broadcasts leaves much to be desired. Perhaps I only feel that way after watching what Cassiopeia called a 'movie' of Frankenstein though. They changed so much about it that it was barely the same story. I suppose the basic theme was still there but it was so different. They even seemed to confuse the monster with his creator by giving them both the same name. Then I watched another movie of it and it was even worse. Does no one care about accuracy in your movie studios?" Mary complained.

Clara laughed as she said, "Not usually. You should be grateful that it isn't far worse though. At least they haven't had the monster fight any zombies yet in a movie. I bet poor Jane would have a fit if she saw that latest movie of Pride and Prejudice. I didn't think it was so bad though but maybe it was because I was too busy watching to see if the Doctor fell over in any of his scenes. I was so sure that he would at least once."

"The Doctor? I didn't know that he was an actor," Mary asked in surprise.

"He isn't but he went undercover as one in order to find the actual zombies that had infiltrated the set. Don't ask. This was back when he was still Fez Boy but I was traveling with him even then. Of course he couldn't be bothered to get me a part in the movie though. I would have even played a zombie if I had to," Clara complained.

"Knowing you the part would have wound up being as the zombies' queen," Mary said with a chuckle.

"Naturally. Always aim high I say," Clara said as she laughed along with her.

Mary now looked at her almost reluctantly as she said, "Anyway I'm fine, Clara. Go help the others and then we can watch more terrible versions of Frankenstein together on television later."

"It's a deal," Clara said happily as she kissed her forehead.

Then she suddenly left in a burst of silver energy as she used her Vortex abilities to return back to Gallifrey. Mary couldn't help but sigh sadly as soon as she did so. Sometime they really did have to talk about how they felt about one another in the wake of what Erebus had done to them. Unfortunately it probably wouldn't be any time soon.

Clara decided to pay a visit to her echo and little Abigail first in order to send them home so they were her first stop once she returned to Gallifrey. As soon as she arrived in their room however, she really wished that she hadn't.

"Clara," Clara's echo said in shock as Clara arrived right in the middle of a passionate kiss between her and Danny.

"Clara, I . . ." Danny said in a guilty voice as he quickly jumped away from Clara's echo.

"I thought you went home. I guess no one had the time to take you back either though," Clara said in a numb voice.

"I wanted to make sure that Abigail was alright so I asked the Matriarch to bring me here instead of sending me back to Earth. Then I spent the last few days with her mother and . . . we started to get to know one another. One thing led to another and . . ." Danny said in a deeply embarrassed voice.

"No, it's alright. We broke up so you're free to see whoever you want. It looks like you definitely have a certain type though don't you? I guess you found a way to keep me after all didn't you? I have to admit that she's perfect for you, Danny. She's just like me but with none of the baggage. She'll be exactly what you wanted," Clara said as she began to cry.

"Clara, I'm sorry. I never wanted . . ." Danny said in a devastated voice as he immediately put his arms around her to comfort her.

". . . to hurt me. Yes, I know, Danny. I know. You're a good man. You wanted to break it to me gently only I had my usual sense of rotten timing," Clara said in an emotional voice as she desperately struggled to hold back any further tears.

"Clara, I'm so sorry. I won't . . . I won't go through with it. I promise. I never should have in the first place especially after everything that you've done for me and Abigail," Clara's echo said in a voice filled with shame.

"No, don't do that. Not because of me. I'm alright. I promise," Clara said in a strong voice as she suddenly pulled away from Danny.

"Clara, are you sure?" Danny asked in an uncertain voice.

"Yeah, of course I am. I'm fine, Danny. I just came here to take the other Clara and Abigail back home. That is if they still want to go there," Clara said in as cheerful a tone as she could manage.

Clara's echo now looked at her nervously as she said, "About that . . . I'd prefer it if you took me and Abigail back to Danny's time . . . but only if that's going to be alright with you of course."

"It's just fine and so am I. I promise. I'll even ask Torchwood to set up new identities for you and Abigail so that you can start up a life in the Twenty First Century. I'm sure you'll both get used to it there in no time with Danny's help," Clara said as she somehow kept a completely neutral expression despite the agony burning through her heart at that moment.

Danny couldn't help but wonder if he was making a mistake because he knew Clara well enough by this point to know that she was in deep pain despite all of her pleas to the contrary. Being with the other Clara just felt right however. What his possible future daughter told him about his future could easily fit her just as well as it did the original after all couldn't it? All that she had told him was that he would wind up with Clara but she had never said which one.

Maybe she couldn't say because of the risk of altering the future . . . or maybe he was altering it himself. He just didn't know anymore.

All he knew for certain was that he couldn't stand to watch the original Clara endanger her life anymore and that he honestly did love the other Clara as well. That would have to do for now he supposed.

"Well, I guess there's no time like the present to get started on that new life of yours, right? I'll send you there right away," Clara said to her echo as she snapped her fingers.

Both Clara's echo and Danny were immediately sent back to the Torchwood of Clara's time. She was sure Jack was already unconsciously hitting on her echo by this point if she knew him. Even though he was married now, it still hadn't completely turned off Jack's natural instincts.

"Clara? Where did Mum and Danny go?" Abigail asked as she suddenly came into the room.

"I sent them both back home. I'll send you too in a minute so don't worry. I just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay first and to say good bye. I haven't really had the time to talk to you at all lately and I'm really sorry about that," Clara said meaning it.

"It's alright, Aunt Clara. Mum told me that you were busy. Besides I got to really know Danny and he seems like a great guy. I think he'd . . . Well, he'd make someone a great dad someday," Abigail said.

"Yeah, he would wouldn't he? Maybe even a little girl just like you," Clara said as she realized that Abigail had no idea that Danny and her mother were in a relationship.

"I wish. It would be nice to have a father. I never knew mine. He died when I was still a baby," Abigail said sadly.

"Don't worry, Abby. I'm sure that you'll get a dad someday," Clara said.

"Do you really think so?" Abigail said in a hopeful voice.

"Yep. I can practically guarantee it, sweetie," Clara said as she hugged Abigail tightly while finally coming to terms with what had just happened.

This was all for the best. She knew that now.

"You know my grandmother is named Abigail. It's odd that the other me should call you that of all names. I guess it just shows that some of my memories survived inside of her after all somehow. Why not? She's definitely got my taste so of course she'd still have a bit of me inside of her somewhere," Clara said with a sad smile.

"Are you okay?" Abigail asked with concern.

"I'm fine," Clara reassured her as she hugged her once more.

"Do you want to talk about it? I'd love to listen and help you as much as I can," Abigail offered in a heartfelt tone.

Clara smiled at her gratefully as she said, "Thank you for the offer, sweetie, but I'm fine. I appreciate the offer though. I really do."

"I always want us to be close, Aunt Clara. You saved my life and I'll never forget that. Ever," Abigail said in an emotional voice as she kissed her cheek.

Clara smiled and wondered if this was what the Matriarch had almost given away in her little slipup about Abigail earlier. Maybe Abigail became just like a niece to her in the years to come. She wouldn't mind that at all if it was true because she already thought very highly of her and she could tell that Abigail felt the same way about her.

"We'll always be close, Abigail. I swear it. I'll come by and see you just as soon as I can in your new life," Clara said meaning it.

"New life?" Abigail asked in confusion.

"You'll find out soon enough, sweetie. I'll just let your mum tell you all about it in a minute. Good bye," Clara said as she snapped her fingers.

"Good bye," Abigail said with a warm smile just before she was sent away.

Clara actually smiled a genuine smile now because she felt a little better about everything even if it did still hurt to think about Danny with someone else. It actually seemed to make her life much clearer in a way. Or at least it would once she figured out how she felt about Mary anyway.

She quickly pushed such thoughts aside however as she teleported to Jenna's room next.

"Ah, I was wondering when you'd finally get around to me. Finally come to take me home at last?" Jenna said with a welcoming smile as soon as she saw her.

"Yeah, if that's what you want. You probably should do it now though while you still can because who knows when I'll have a free moment again anytime soon. I'm just warning you," Clara advised.

Jenna nodded as she said, "It's been really surreal getting to live in the universe of my old show but I've enjoyed every moment of it. I just spent the last few days touring Gallifrey and seeing all of the sights. I bet Peter would be dying of envy . . . if I could actually tell him anything about this that is. I'm sure he would never believe it though. He'd probably think that I was just pranking him. I even met the Doctor's mother. I thought she'd be just as weird as he is, but she was actually pretty normal."

"Don't ask me what happened. Maybe his father was the weird one in the family and he took after him," Clara with a giggle.

"Maybe," Jenna said in a reluctant tone.

"You don't really want to go back do you?" Clara suddenly realized.

"Not just yet. I do want to go back eventually of course, but there's still so much that I'd actually like to see first. I want to see more planets and aliens and . . ." Jenna said in an excited voice.

"You're hooked," Clara said with a grin.

"Of course I am. Isn't that how it happened to you?" Jenna asked.

"Yeah, but sometimes I almost wish that it hadn't," Clara said in a faraway tone.

"Danny left you didn't he?" Jenna asked in a sympathetic tone.

Clara looked at her in surprise as Jenna added, "It was kind of obvious that it was about to happen based on what I know of the show and what you told me about you and him. Besides I saw you and Mary together."

Clara's eyes bulged at that point which made Jenna laugh as she said, "It's pretty obvious to anyone who's really been watching the two of you. Only the Doctor would miss it I bet."

"The Doctor will probably think I'm still with Danny for a couple of months to come no matter how many times I tell him otherwise," Clara agreed with a small smile.

"Are you okay?" Jenna asked.

"No . . . but I think I will be," Clara said as she found to her surprise that she couldn't lie to her.

Jenna nodded with a pleased look on her face as she said, "So is it alright if I stay a little longer then?"

"You don't have to ask my permission. If you want to stay, stay. I'm just warning you that you might not get to go anywhere fun for a while yet. We're all pretty busy right now especially me. I so hope that Jenny takes back this job soon or I may just go completely bananas and wind up like Missy," Clara said with a groan.

"I hope you'd have much better fashion sense if you do. At least wear Governess Clara's outfit or better yet Oswin's if you do decide to go evil, okay?" Jenna said with a smirk.

"You actually think I'm kidding don't you, Actor Girl. I really wish I were. I would so love a little diversion from the Council right now," Clara said with a wistful expression.

"Maybe the other Clara can give you one. You still haven't fixed her just yet. She's very worried about it you know? She just keeps talking to me about it because I think she's worried that she's the one who's going to go bananas again. I really think that she'll be fine but she won't listen. She's not going to be happy until she's completely normal again. Or at least as normal as any Clara could ever possibly be anyway," Jenna said with a wry grin.

"Very funny," Clara said with a fake frown that quickly turned into a smile.

"So do you have any ideas of how you could take her powers away?" Jenna asked hopefully.

Clara shrugged as she admitted, "Not a one. That's really not my area. Maybe Cassiopeia could help her though. She's been in the Vortex business longer than anyone except Rose so maybe she could take her powers away. I just haven't had the time to ask her yet. I was going to ask her when I went back home just now but she wasn't there. Mary was the only one there. I have no idea where she is."

"Do you have any way of finding her?" Jenna asked.

Clara shook her head as she said, "Nope. Sorry. I'm sure I'll think of something though. Maybe I could take her to see the Grace. I think I know how to get to where they live."

"That sounds very reassuring," Jenna said with a wince.

"Oi! Don't start up with the criticisms again. We were getting along so well," Clara said with a chuckle.

"Got to keep you on your toes though don't I? I can't let things get too boring," Jenna said with a mischievous smile.

"Right now boring would almost be a good thing. Anything would be better than having to go back before those nitwits on the High Council," Clara complained.

Suddenly they heard a loud scream from somewhere nearby as a voice shouted, "No! I won't let this happen again! No!"

"It's the psycho Clara," Clara said in alarm.

"Would you please stop calling her that? She's not a psycho, Clara. That's really rude you know? You're starting to pick up the Doctor's bad habits," Jenna said in a disapproving tone.

"Just shut up and run, Actor Girl. We have to get to her before it's too late," Clara said impatiently as she teleported away.

"You could have at least taken me along with you!" Jenna protested as she started to race out of her room.

"Oh, good. You're still here. I was hoping that you wouldn't be gone yet," A familiar voice said behind her making her instantly stop in her tracks.

"You!" Jenna said in a shocked voice.

"Yep, it's me. You're a regular master of the obvious aren't you?" The new arrival said in amusement.

That was when Clara came back through the door and stared at their new arrival in complete bewilderment as she too said, "You!"

"Yeah, me. No, sorry. That's Ashy's name so I can't take that one because I'm sure she's probably got it copyrighted somewhere by now as old as she is. So why don't you just call me Clara instead. Not that that's not going to get confusing too of course with there being two of us around," The woman that Clara instantly recognized as the Clara of Missy's universe said with a chuckle.

"Try dealing with millions of echoes called that sometime. Look. I don't want to be rude here despite what Jenna thinks about me but . . . aren't you dead? And what's with the waitress outfit?" Clara asked as she gave Jenna a questioning look.

"You never did tell her the whole story about what happened to me did you?" Clara Prime asked Jenna.

"I never had the time. Things happen fast in this universe," Jenna admitted with a shrug.

"So what did I miss? I mean what else could have happened anyway? You died and then you got better and decided to open up a restaurant?" Clara joked.

"Something like that. I'll explain later. We have to catch up with the other Clara first before it's too late," Clara Prime said in an anxious voice.

"What did happen to her? You never did say," Jenna asked Clara.

"I don't know. She's just gone. I have no idea where she is. I can't even track her with my powers. They are pretty limited though since I'm still not that well trained in using them yet," Clara admitted.

"Don't worry. Someday you will be. I guarantee it," Clara Prime said with a knowing smile.

"Until then though, I have absolutely no idea how to find the other me unless of course you just happen to have a lead on her," Clara prodded.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't would I? Ashy and I first came here to this universe while following an old enemy of ours named Missy. Unfortunately we never did find her, but we came just in time to see someone stealing the other Clara away. I really wish we could have stopped him too because I've heard a lot of bad stories about what she did the first time that she flipped her lid. I don't care to see a repeat performance of that live and in person either," Clara Prime said.

"No, believe me. You really, really don't. I was there the first time around and almost didn't live to tell about it," Clara said with a shudder.

"That's why we have to get going as soon as possible while Ashy still has a signal left to trace. If there's anybody that doesn't need to have this psycho Clara working for him, it's the Valeyard," Clara Prime said.

"The Valeyard?" Clara said in alarm.

"That's who Ashy says that he is anyway. I don't know. I've never met him before. What I've heard about him doesn't exactly inspire me with hope though. The real Doctor's bad enough when he goes off the rails. I don't even want to think about a completely evil one," Clara Prime said in a worried voice.

"He must be my universe's Valeyard. Now I know exactly what's going on. He doesn't really want the other Clara's power at all. That's just a nice little side benefit. No, what he wants is her life force so that he can finally be immortal just like he's always wanted to be. We have to stop him before the other Clara finally gets her wish granted. It'll happen alright but in the worst possible way," Clara said in alarm.

"Let's not stand around wasting any more time flapping our jaws then. Both of you grab onto me while I use this little gift I borrowed from Captain Jack Harkness to quickly take us back to my ship," Clara Prime said with a smile as she began entering coordinates into the Vortex Manipulator on her arm.

" _Your_ ship? You got your own ship? Why don't I have a ship? And I just realized that you have your own companion too. You really are just like the Doctor now aren't you? Why can't I be the Doctor?" Clara asked in a clearly jealous tone.

"Oh, it's so much fun to have the shoe on the other foot for a change," Jenna said with a smirk.

The three of them immediately arrived on Clara Prime's TARDIS diner as she said to Clara with an evil smile, "Welcome to my humble abode. Did I mention that it's a TARDIS?"

"Some Claras have all the luck," Clara muttered in a voice with resentment.

"Not really. There is one huge tradeoff. I am technically dead after all. I don't even have a heartbeat," Clara Prime admitted with a forlorn expression.

Clara immediately turned pale as she said, "My own bad jokes are coming back to haunt me. I'm not even sure I want to know how you became a zombie. You don't eat brains though, right?"

"No. Still soufflés. Brains might actually taste a bit better though," Clara Prime joked.

"Believe me. They definitely would. Not that I know that from personal experience of course. Even I never went that far. I just know how terrible the soufflés are because I made the mistake of eating one once. I never regretted being immortal so much in my life," Ashildr said as she finally left the diner's Console Room.

"This is Ashy by the way. She's my partner in crime I guess you could say. Are we still picking up a signal from the Valeyard's TARDIS, Ashildr?" Clara Prime asked.

"So far, yes. He seems to be heading straight towards the planet Chaos, the home of the Grace," Ashildr said with a deeply troubled look.

"He wants revenge. He wants to take them out for trying to stop him from killing me and getting rid of a little competition in the universe ruling department probably wouldn't hurt either if he ever gains the power of the psycho Clara," Clara said in an extremely worried voice.

Jenna loudly cleared her throat as Clara quickly added, 'The other Clara I mean. She's not a psycho. Are you happy now, Actor Girl?"

Jenna smiled from ear to ear as she said in a jubilant voice, "No, but I soon will be. I'm going to the planet of the Grace!"

"I know," Clara said with a knowing smile as Clara Prime started to laugh.

"I used to think that all Claras were mad because of something gone wrong in their genetic code. Now I'm starting to wonder if it's somehow contagious," Ashildr said in disbelief.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Clara joked as she put an arm around a visibly excited Jenna.

 **Next: Clara Prime and Ashildr join Clara and Jenna in a quest to save the former psycho Clara from being used as a helpless pawn in the Valeyard's deadly game with the Grace. Will they be able to prevent the Valeyard from gaining her almost limitless power or are they and the Grace all doomed to fall before his unyielding ambition?**


	6. The Most Shocking Secret of All?

CHAPTER 6

I do not own Doctor Who, Big Finish, or Game of Thrones and I am making no profit off of this.

THE MOST SHOCKING SECRET OF ALL?

As soon as Clara Prime's TARDIS landed on the planet Chaos, it was immediately greeted by a massive shockwave that instantly knocked everyone in the Console Room off of their feet. The entire ship started to shake so violently that Clara feared that it might actually fall apart all around them at any moment.

"Jenna, are you okay?" Clara asked with concern as she noticed that her friend was gritting her teeth together with pain from where she lay helplessly on the floor.

"Me? Oh, I'm just fine. Well . . . other than the fact that I currently feel like I'm on the losing end of a fight with a jackhammer of course," Jenna said with a forced smile.

Clara knew better however. She could tell from a lifetime of experience at reading that particular face's expressions that Jenna was completely terrified but trying very hard not to show it.

"Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay," Clara said in a comforting voice as her stomach began to twist into knots out of an overwhelming sense of guilt.

If anything happened to Jenna because she had brought her here . . .

Clara squeezed her eyes together in concentration, and her hands glowed with power as she gestured towards Jenna. A moment later she smiled in satisfaction as her friend swiftly started to rise above the floor.

As Clara began to levitate alongside her, she said in a smug voice, "Congratulate me, Actor Girl. Looks like I just learned a new trick. I've never levitated anyone but myself before. See? I told you everything would be fine."

"Never doubted it for an instant," Jenna said with a chuckle as the fear seemed to rapidly drain from her eyes.

"Jenna, I . . . I'm sorry. I never should have brought you here," Clara said in a serious voice.

Jenna smiled at her reassuringly as she said, "Hey, I knew the risks better than anyone, alright? I never walked into this blind so you have nothing to blame yourself for at all. Don't worry so much about me. I'm fine."

"Unfortunately we're very far from being fine right now. If we can't get the TARDIS out of here soon, whatever is going on outside will completely tear it apart. It won't be too long after that before we join it. Well, the rest of you will anyway. I doubt it'll be a picnic for me either though even if I can't die," Clara Prime said with a shudder.

"It's lucky for you that you have me around then isn't it?" Ashildr said in a determined voice.

"How in the . . . ?" Clara said in stunned disbelief as she looked in Ashildr's direction.

"Whoa," Jenna said in amazement.

Both of their jaws dropped in unison then as they saw Ashildr actually beginning to stand once more despite the fact that the massive earthquake outside was so powerful that it was currently causing the entire ship to rapidly come apart all around them. Then as if being able to stay on her own feet wasn't already impossible enough Ashildr actually started to rapidly sprint towards the console while expertly dodging falling pieces of the TARDIS' ceiling along the way.

"Okay, how did she just do that? I don't even see so much as a drop of sweat on her," Clara said in a shocked voice as she watched Ashildr finally reach the console and begin to rapidly dematerialize the TARDIS.

Clara Prime shrugged with an amused smile on her face as she said, "Yeah, nothing she does surprises me anymore really. Ashy's just full of little tricks like that."

"Learning to maintain a near perfect sense of balance is really not as hard a skill to learn as you might think. Well not if you have long enough to practice it that is. I suppose a great many things in my past helped me with it. I used to be a professional stuntwoman once in several movies and for several years I walked on the tightrope in a high wire act. At least I think I did anyway. Not to mention that I learned many secrets on how to maintain my balance in practically any situation from the Aikido masters of Venus, the Knights of Velyshaa, and the Faceless Men," Ashildr said proudly even as the TARDIS finally began to dematerialize at last.

"As in the Faceless Men from Game of Thrones? Really? Now you're just making stuff up," Clara said with a smirk.

"Says the woman who regularly travels through time and space in a blue box," Ashildr said with a secret smile.

"Is she saying that Game of Thrones is somehow real?" Jenna asked in confusion.

"Of course not. She's just winding us up, Actor Girl," Clara said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"Actually . . ." Clara Prime said with a knowing smile.

"No! Really?" Clara said in amazement.

"As stimulating as this conversation is, Claras, I'm afraid I'll have to cut it short. We're just about to land again. I'm setting us down right in the middle of the Grace's main citadel. If it's still in one piece that is. Be prepared for anything," Ashildr warned.

"Jenna, maybe you should stay in the TARDIS for this one," Clara said in an uncertain voice as the TARDIS began to rapidly materialize once more.

Jenna gave her an incredulous look as she said, "Do you really think that would be any safer after what just happened?"

"Yeah, you're probably right," Clara admitted with a frown.

"Stop worrying so much," Jenna said with a groan.

Then she smiled as the TARDIS finally landed at last and nothing happened.

"See? Whatever was going on has stopped. Maybe the Grace fixed it whatever it was," Jenna said in a hopeful voice.

"Actually I think she has a very good reason to be worried," A woman's voice suddenly said from behind them.

They both suddenly turned to see a strange dark haired woman standing there with a cruel smile on her face.

"So you're behind all of this," Ashildr said in a voice filled with venom.

"I really must applaud that little last minute rescue of yours, Lady Me. That even took me by surprise and that's not an easy thing to do. But then you're always been full of surprises haven't you?" The mystery woman said as she gave Ashildr a look filled with raw hatred.

"Okay, I get the sense that there's a bit of a history between you two then, yeah?" Clara joked nervously.

That was when their newest arrival turned to look at her with such a look of intense anger that Clara actually found herself unconsciously taking a step back from her withering gaze.

"Why am I not surprised to find you here? I should have known that you would come along to stop me sooner or later. You always do after all even if you don't always succeed," The woman said with an amused laugh as she stared right at Clara with accusing eyes.

"I'm sorry? Have we met before?" Clara said in confusion.

She couldn't help but notice that Clara Prime had just turned pale. She looked absolutely terrified of this woman whoever she was.

"Oh, many times, Clara Oswald. Many times. And let's not even count all of the times that you've saved your precious Champion from me. He should have always been my Champion though really not yours. After all I am the one who has always been his constant companion throughout all of his lives while you have mostly remained a fleeting shadow in them until recently," The woman said in a furious voice as all traces of her former smile rapidly left her face.

Clara looked more than a bit confused now as she said in a jovial tone, "Are you talking about the Doctor? I think you've got a few things wrong there. First of all he's hardly my Champion. I mean I am his boss. That's just a given. It's not like I give him assignments to do or anything though. He's really more of a weekly distraction or an ongoing hobby than an employee. Besides he's the one who should be paying me just for putting up with him."

The dark haired woman slowly moved closer to her now as she said in a threatening tone, "You always have the ready made quip on hand at all times to use against your enemies don't you, Sister? I've always hated that about you. At least Sarah Jane knows to show me some respect. Your constant need to laugh in my face at all times isn't endearing or brave in the slightest though. It's merely a sign of your own inherit stupidity instead."

Then she briefly turned to look at Clara Prime with a sinister grin as she said, "You found that lesson out the hard way when you faced the raven didn't you? Or how about when you lost your precious Mr. Pink at my hands? Not so cocky then were you?"

Clara Prime's face turned red and she clenched her fists in anger in response as she said in a cold voice, "Don't you dare mention his name to me."

"Oh, did I just hit a nerve?" Death said in a mocking tone.

"Just who are you supposed to be anyway and why are you calling me your sister? I mean can you cut the cryptic bit for a minute and just tell me what it is you want already?" Clara said in an annoyed voice.

"Clara, be careful. Don't let your guard down for a single instant," Clara Prime warned as the sinister woman moved ever closer to Clara.

"Who is she though? Can't someone just tell me what's going on here? Is she working with the Valeyard or something?" Clara asked in bewilderment.

The dark haired woman laughed as she said, "I've always walked by the Valeyard's side in one way or another since the day he was born, Sister. You might say I put the Theta in Theta Sigma."

"Listen, whoever you are. There's one thing that I know for sure and that's that I am not your sister!" Clara said in an angry voice as she finally lost her temper at last.

The woman shrugged as she said, "Not this version of you, no. You're still my true enemy in the end though. You always have been in one guise or another. It's always been you who ultimately keeps him out of my grasp. It's you who made him _your_ champion when he should have been mine. What a glorious partnership we would have had together if not for you! He's already caused more than enough destruction just by trying to 'help' others. Just think of what he could do if he really put his mind to it. Don't get me wrong. The Valeyard is very good at what he does but he's incomplete and always will be. The original Doctor would be far superior and would have been much better suited to be seated at my right hand than the Master ever was. The Master is a mere amateur compared to the man who was willing to destroy his own people. And yet you kept him from becoming mine even then by talking him out of such a glorious act of destruction. Like I said, it's always been you."

Clara's eyes widened now as she said, "I think I know who you are now. Rose told me all about how she rescued the Master from having to serve you for the rest of his lives and removed your hold on him around the same time that she took the drums out of his head. You've also been threatening to kill Sarah Jane's fiance too recently. You've just been all kinds of busy lately, haven't you? I'm right aren't I? You're Death."

Death smiled and curtseyed to her sarcastically as she said, "Or you could call me Ariana Duquesne if you wish like Sarah Jane does because she refuses to acknowledge the truth about me. It's my current favorite pseudonym by the way. I tend to favor that name in my dealings with others because the name Death just tends to turn people off for some reason."

"Really? I can't imagine why," Jenna said with a nervous chuckle.

"It all makes sense now. Well . . . most of it does anyway," Clara said in a thoughtful voice as she immediately placed herself protectively in front of Jenna.

"I'm glad it does to someone. Now could you kindly explain it to me please?" Jenna asked impatiently.

"She's an Eternal who fancies herself to be the embodiment of Death so she's been talking metaphorically this whole time with all of that stuff about me keeping the Doctor from her. Despite what she says she's not really Death though so don't worry. She's just another cosmic nutter with delusions of grandeur instead. I mean she's plenty dangerous obviously but she's not the actual Grim Reaper or anything," Clara said in what she desperately hoped was a chipper voice even though she was feeling far from cheerful at that moment.

"Aren't the Eternals pretty much all powerful though and capable of completely altering reality on a whim? Does it really matter if she's not the actual Reaper or not when she can do things like that?" Jenna said with a frown.

"Finally someone who's properly impressed. It's about time. Usually I at least have someone faint at the mention of my name by now. I was beginning to think that I was losing my touch," Death said with a mad twinkle in her eyes.

"So I take it that you're here to keep us from rescuing the other Clara from the Valeyard, yeah?" Clara said as she quickly changed the subject.

Death smiled as she said, "I'm here to keep you from interfering in my plans period, dear. This time you will not stand in my way as so many versions of you have in the past. This reality will soon belong to me just as it always should have right from the start because I finally have a new champion at my side at last. One who not even you or your mother will be able to take away from me this time."

"Watch her. She's up to something, Ashy," Clara Prime said in an anxious voice.

Death laughed as she said, "Actually it was never me that you had to worry about. My appearance here was merely a distraction to keep you from realizing what the true danger facing you was until it was far too late to do anything about it."

That was when a suspicious Ashildr suddenly looked at the console and said in a panicked voice, "Clara, there's another massive shockwave that's about to hit this planet at any . . . !"

There wasn't even time to prepare themselves for what was to come before the entire TARDIS completely disintegrated around them in a single instant! Clara then saw to her horror that it wasn't just the TARDIS that had been torn apart. It was the entire planet itself.

The planet Chaos had been completely blown apart.

Now Clara and the others suddenly found themselves helplessly drifting in space amid its rubble as they looked around them in stunned disbelief.

Luckily Clara had instinctively covered the entire TARDIS crew (Death wasn't with them because she had done a convenient disappearing act) inside of a protective force field the moment that she had realized that something was wrong. She doubted that even she or Ashildr would have survived being suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space otherwise and she knew that Jenna wouldn't have.

That was when she noticed for the first time that Jenna wasn't there and her heart suddenly stopped.

"Jenna? Jenna!" Clara screamed in fear.

"Clara, she's gone," Clara Prime said in a somber voice.

"Where did she go? I don't see her anywhere. I don't . . . I can't find her. I don't sense her anywhere. This can't be happening. I - I was supposed to protect her. This is my fault. I shouldn't have listened to her. I should have just sent her home," Clara said in an emotional voice as she struggled to keep herself from falling apart.

"There was nothing that you could have done, Clara. It all happened much too quickly. This is a perfect example of the basic fragility of the mayflies' existence and it's just as well that you realized that right now. This is only the first of many such losses that you'll have to get used to eventually in the future I'm afraid," Ashildr said in a completely emotionless tone.

Clara immediately became filled with anger as she said, "I don't think so. I haven't even begun to give up on her just yet. I haven't given her permission to die so she's not going anywhere. End of story, Immortal Girl!"

"I remember when you used to be like that," Ashildr said to Clara Prime with a sigh.

"What do you mean used to be?" Clara Prime said with a brief smirk before giving Clara a sympathetic look.

Clara was so grateful that at least one of them understood what she was going through at that moment. She wasn't giving up no matter what Ashildr said. She would find Jenna somehow.

She had to.

Meanwhile at that very moment Jenna was worrying just as much about Clara as she was about her as she repeatedly called her name while drifting through what seemed to be an endless black void. Where was she and what had happened to the others?

For that matter, how was she even still alive?

Then she suddenly felt a presence all around her which caused her to call out in an uncertain voice, "Hello? Who's there?"

"Don't worry. You're perfectly safe here. I've merely borrowed you for a while so that we could talk," A familiar voice said even as it seemed to come from all around her at once.

"Clara? Is that you?" Jenna said in a hopeful tone.

"Yes and no. I guess that all depends upon your point of view doesn't it?" The voice suddenly said from behind her.

Jenna suddenly turned her head around to see a near perfect double of Clara hovering through the darkness behind her. She wasn't a complete doppleganger of Clara however because unlike Clara Prime or even herself she differed from Clara in one very noticeable and fairly obvious way.

Jenna instantly laughed as she said in an amused voice, "You're tall! I mean you must be at least six and a half feet. Maybe even seven. Well, someone's certainly overcompensating for something aren't they? You don't have to feel that bad about not rescuing me right away, Clara."

The woman before her smiled at her kindly as she said, "I'm afraid that I am not Clara Oswald, my friend, although I can easily see how I might be mistaken for her since we are so very similar in appearance. I've often wondered if I might be one of her many echoes somehow even though I'm far from human. In truth, I honestly don't know if I am or not. My sister certainly suspects that I am anyway and I have to admit that it would explain a great deal about me especially my sense of protectiveness towards the Doctor."

Jenna looked at her intently now as several things began to suddenly click into place for her at once.

"Let me guess. You're Death's sister aren't you? You're the one who she kept talking about when she said that you made the Doctor into your Champion instead of hers. I remember reading something about that somewhere when I researched the show. Some of the books based on it used to call the Doctor Time's Champion even though that was never mentioned in the show itself. Now I wish I had paid more attention to that because I really don't remember much about it," Jenna realized.

The strange woman who was and yet wasn't Clara nodded as she said, "Yes, I am the Eternal who was once known to the ancient Gallifreyans as Time. In the era before Rassilon moved Gallifrey solely towards the path of science and reason, they worshipped me and my twin sisters, who they called Pain and Death, as goddesses and thought of us as embodying certain abstract universal concepts. In truth we were never gods in any way, shape, or form and that notion always disturbed me greatly even though I tried to use my influence among them in a benevolent and positive manner. I helped them to grow and to advance ever further as a people towards what I knew was always going to be their eventual destiny to rule over all of time and space."

"I bet your sister was far from a positive influence on them though," Jenna noted.

Time nodded as she said, "Unfortunately that is true. If she had had her way, the Gallifreyans would have become her mindless thralls and entirely subjugated the universe to her will long ago instead of becoming the protectors of time and space that they later did. I helped ensure that that never happened however by always opposing her every time that she attempted to corrupt them."

"Everything Lady Grim said is finally starting to make sense," Jenna said with a thoughtful look.

Then she winced as she said, "Great. Now I'm even starting to talk like Clara with the cute little nicknames. I've really got to watch that. Talk about getting too wrapped up in a role. Then again most actors don't actually get to meet the characters that they play do they?"

Time smiled at her enigmatically as she said, "Perhaps you and Clara are linked in far more ways than even you realize."

Jenna looked at her quizzically as she said, "What do you mean by that? Are you trying to say that I'm another one of her echoes? Now that would certainly be ironic since I'm the one who wound up playing her in my universe, wouldn't it?"

Time shrugged as she said, "Perhaps or perhaps it is she that is an echo of you somehow. Maybe you were always destined to become Clara Oswald in every universe in one way or another. It could be that you're far more important than even you realize."

Jenna was beginning to become disturbed by this conversation now and desperately tried to change the subject as she said, "Is that why you brought me here? To tell me that? Or was there another reason?"

Time smiled at her warmly as she said, "I brought you here in part so that Clara wouldn't have to worry about protecting you during the confrontation that is still to come. She won't be able to afford to have anything distracting her when she stands against the Valeyard especially since what he's about to tell her will already be distracting enough as it is."

Jenna groaned as she said, "Do any of you cosmic types ever talk in a straightforward manner or is it always in riddles?"

Time actually laughed at that, it was a musical and strangely beautiful sound Jenna noted, as she said, "Yes, we do tend to get wrapped up in our own importance don't we? There are many things that we cannot outright say to you and your fellow Ephemerals however or we would risk potentially seriously damaging the Web of Time to which even we are intricately connected. Even we as powerful as we are have rules that we must follow. My sister however intends to completely throw that rulebook out along with the very shape and design of the Web itself if her ultimate plan succeeds. She wishes to completely rewrite all of existence to suit her whims instead. That and those of her allies."

"Allies? Now we're starting to get somewhere. So she's not just working with the Valeyard then? And who is this new champion that she was talking about that she replaced the Master with? This is just like trying to solve a mystery. You know I'm really starting to love this despite all of the danger," Jenna said in an excited voice.

"Always be mindful of the reckless behavior of the original Clara and remember what happened to her as a result of her actions. I cannot always be there to pluck you to safety at the first sign of danger," Time warned.

Jenna nodded as she said, "I understand. I'll try to rein in the enthusiasm a bit even if it is hard to do at times. I can really see why she loved this life so much though now that I'm actually living it myself."

Time gave her a look of approval as she said, "You will perhaps get far more excitement than you might have ever wished for soon. I didn't just separate you from Clara in order to keep her from being distracted after all. I had a specific purpose for you in mind. You will have a new part to play in a moment. The biggest one of your career in fact."

"What are you talking about? What part?" Jenna asked in confusion.

"You might say that it's one you've spent years preparing for. Good luck, Jenna. All of time and space will be counting on you to play this particular role to perfection," Time said as she started to vanish.

"What? What are you talking about? What's going on?" Jenna demanded.

Then suddenly she found herself sitting alone in the middle of a huge ornate bedroom that looked far too alien in nature to have been built by human beings. What she was already beginning to suspect in that moment was quickly confirmed as she glanced down at her clothing and realized that she was now wearing the exact same robes that she had seen Clara wearing as Lady President of Gallifrey!

"Why am I dressed like this? Lady Time, can you still hear me? What's going on? What do you want me to do?" Jenna asked out loud in a growing state of panic.

 _Relax._ Time's voice instantly said in her mind in a soothing tone.

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one suddenly being plucked down in the middle of a strange room wearing someone else's clothes are you? What am I doing here and what is this role that you want me to play? Say something!" Jenna demanded.

Suddenly the entire situation instantly became self explanatory as a Chancellery Guard came into the room and sighed in relief as he said, "There you are, Madam President. I thought for sure that the High Council would have my head for losing you. One of them claims that they couldn't find you earlier when they sent someone to remind you that you were to attend their next meeting today. You know some of the Council were actually threatening to call for a vote of no confidence in your leadership and attempt to replace you on the spot if I couldn't find you in the next few minutes. It's absolute nonsense of course and obviously a feeble attempt to depose you by those who never liked the idea of a human being appointed as President. I'm sure whoever they sent probably didn't look very hard for that very reason. Either that or it was just pure incompetence. It's typical of those lazy oafs to just look in one place for a few minutes and then start screaming."

Then the man winced as he seemed to remember who he was addressing and said, "I'm sorry, Ma'am. I meant no disrespect to the Council of course. I merely spoke out of turn. I think it's because you make one feel as if they're talking to a friend instead of a superior. I know that's not really an excuse though and I deeply apologize. I – I hope that my comments won't have to be passed along to anyone else."

So this was what she was supposed to do? Play Clara? That didn't sound so hard. She could do that with no problems whatsoever. In fact it was almost like second nature to her by now to take on Clara's persona. She'd done it for three years after all and she had even played Queen Victoria recently so playing Clara as Lady President shouldn't be a problem in the slightest.

She could do this.

Jenna smiled at the guard now as she instantly went into the role of Clara without a moment's hesitation and said, "Don't worry. They won't hear a thing about it from me. Mum's the word, yeah?"

As the guard began to smile in relief, she leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial manner, "Believe me. I agree with you about them one hundred percent. We'll just keep that between ourselves though, won't we?"

The guard actually laughed as he said, "Yes, Ma'am."

Then to Jenna's surprise he actually saluted her as he said, "Speaking off the record, Ma'am, I'd like to say that you're a definite improvement over all of the other Presidents that I've served under. Now I can see why the rest of the guards like you so much. I liked your sister President Jennifer too of course but you're just more . . . relatable to me somehow."

Jenna smiled and decided to play up Clara's massive ego as she said in a smug voice, "Thank you. I've always liked to think myself as being just an ordinary everyday girl who doesn't look down on others despite the fact that I'm a natural born leader who's absolutely brilliant."

The guard looked at her oddly as she laughed and said, "That was a joke. I do that sometimes especially when I'm just a bit nervous."

The guard nodded and looked more at ease now as he said, "Just relax, Madam President. I'm sure that this meeting will go absolutely fine. Would you like a minute to compose yourself first before I take you there?"

Jenna began to instantly start panicking once more now as she said, "You mean the meeting's happening right now?"

"In just a few minutes, yes. It should be nothing to be worried about from what I've heard of it though, Ma'am. It will be just as routine as all of your other meetings with the Council . . . and just as boring too I'm sure," The guard said with a reassuring smile.

Jenna fought hard to overcome a rising sense of anxiety now as she laughed and said, "Yeah, you're probably right. Could I just have a few minutes to myself before we go?"

The guard saluted her and said, "Of course, Ma'am. I'll be just outside if you need me."

"Thank you," Jenna said as he left the room.

As soon as he was gone, she immediately began to become filled with terror as she said to herself in a low voice, "Okay, so it turns out that I can't do this after all. I have absolutely no idea what a meeting of the High Council is like or what goes on there. They're going to know that I'm not Clara right away and then there's no telling what they'll do next. They might even accuse me of being a spy or something. Lady Time, where are you?"

This time Time did not answer her however and that was when she realized that she was truly alone.

What was she going to do?

Meanwhile back in the ruins of what used to be the planet Chaos, Clara was feeling a similar sense of despair at that moment as all of her attempts to find Jenna had been nothing but an absolute failure so far. She had drifted away from Clara Prime and Ashildr, but not so far that she couldn't still maintain a force field around them, and had been searching the floating rubble by herself for almost twenty minutes now. She still hadn't turned up a single clue as to what had happened to her friend in all of that time however.

She was beginning to fear that Ashildr was right after all and that made her wonder why the Doctor had ever decided to take along any traveling companions with him over the centuries much less so many of them.

How did he ever overcome this crippling sense of guilt whenever he lost one? For that matter why would he have ever wanted to risk going through something like this again by taking on another one?

She was beginning to develop an all new appreciation for the Old Man now that she would have much rather done without instead.

Suddenly without warning she found herself right in the middle of a darkened TARDIS Console Room that only had a faint light which it used to illuminate its interior. It was so dim that Clara could barely see anything around her and certainly not with any great detail. The entire room centered around a much larger than normal dark red console that had easily filled up most of it and was constantly moving up and down at a far more rapid rate than the Doctor's console usually did. She didn't have to hear the Valeyard speak in the very next moment to know that this was obviously his own TARDIS. The depressive atmosphere of this place fit him to a T.

"Don't worry, Clara. I'll relieve you of that sense of justifiable guilt soon enough now. Think of it as being my last present to you for old time's sake," The mocking voice of the Valeyard said behind her.

An enraged Clara quickly whirled around to see a glowing Valeyard standing there with a look of triumph on his face.

"You finally stole the other Clara's powers after all I see. So did you kill her too?" Clara said in a voice dripping with venom.

The Valeyard shook his head as he said in a sinister tone, "No, actually she's very much alive at the moment. Here. Let me show you."

He gestured to the rapidly moving console and as she looked closer at it Clara realized to her horror that her alternate universe counterpart, the former Psycho Clara, was now trapped inside of it!

"What did you do to her?" Clara asked in a sickened voice as she saw that the Psycho Clara's eyes were closed and she wasn't moving.

The Valeyard smiled and looked absolutely unconcerned in any way whatsoever as he said, "She's filled with so much power that I couldn't possibly absorb it all at once safely so I'm slowly draining it from her a little at a time along with her greatly lengthened lifespan. Until that process is finished, she's in absolutely no danger of dying at all I assure you. In fact she's performing a very useful purpose by powering my TARDIS with the rest of her energies. She's increased its efficiency a thousand fold at the very least if not more so."

"So you've made her into an oversized battery in other words. And for what? So that you can get your petty little revenge on the Grace by blowing up their planet with her stolen energy? Is that it? Whatever your reasons are, they definitely weren't worth losing Jenna over. I'm not about to let you get away with making her your victim in this little grudge match between you and the Grace," Clara said in a cold voice.

The Valeyard's face became deadly serious now as he said, "There is far more between us than a mere 'grudge match' as you so graciously put it, Clara. The Grace are not the benevolent protectors of the universe that they would have you believe that they are. They're far from it in fact."

Clara looked at him skeptically as she said, "Uh, huh. Right. Next you'll be telling me that you're actually the good guy in all of this and that you're really just trying to protect the rest of the universe from them. Is that it?"

The Valeyard smiled as he said, "You're actually not far from the truth. I may not be a 'good guy' as you put it but then neither are they. They've done things that would definitely make you think twice about exactly which side you should be on in our little 'grudge match' with one another I think."

"Somehow I highly doubt that. Nothing you could tell me about them even if it was true could ever be as bad as the things that you've done. She was my friend, Valeyard. I know you've completely forgotten what having a friend means but it still matters to me. I was supposed to protect her and I failed and it's all thanks to you!" Clara said in a voice that was rapidly becoming filled with anger.

"And what if I told you that she's not dead? Would that help calm you down long enough to hear me out?" The Valeyard said in an impatient voice.

"And why should I believe anything that you said? You seem to forget that I know you much too well, Brickyard. If you were Pinocchio, you'd have a nose long enough to circle the entire universe twenty times over," Clara said in a scornful tone.

"And you wouldn't?" The Valeyard said with a condescending grin.

"I'm nowhere near as bad as you are. Not even on my worst day," Clara said defensively.

"Ah, the lies that we tell ourselves just to get by. You even lie to yourself I see. Not that that really surprises me of course. This time I'm truly not lying however believe it or not, my dear. I saw her suddenly vanish just before she would have been consumed in the explosion of Chaos," The Valeyard said.

"What do you mean she vanished? Where did she go?" Clara demanded in an anxious voice.

"No doubt she was rescued by the Grace or one of their allies and is even now being used as a pawn to fulfill yet another hidden agenda of theirs that they just can't be bothered to tell the rest of us lesser beings about. Notice how they couldn't tell you themselves that she was still alive? Or even to contact you period for that matter? Do you really want to trust beings like that, Clara?" The Valeyard asked in what almost seemed to be a genuinely angry voice.

"I'd much rather trust them than you any day. How do I know that they're even still alive anyway? I haven't seen a trace of them anywhere either I noticed. For all I know you could have just killed all of them too in that explosion," Clara accused.

The Valeyard shook his head as he said in a voice filled with regret, "No, that attack was nowhere near powerful enough to kill even one of the Grace much less all of them. They all escaped in order to plague the universe another day unfortunately. Blowing up their home definitely got their attention though and more importantly it deprived them of the Chaos Pool. It was destroyed right along with Chaos itself."

"So? What good does that do you?" Clara asked curiously.

The Valeyard's malevolent smile slowly began to fill his entire face as he said, "The Chaos Pool was where the Grace created the Key to Time back at the very dawn of this universe. In order to create an object with that much power however they had to permanently link the Pool to their own life force. In other words, it became a part of them. It was such a vital, integral part in fact that without it they're no longer the beings that they used to be. So you see even though I didn't kill them by destroying the pool I've already won."

Clara mulled his words over in his mind as she said in a thoughtful tone, " 'They're no longer the beings that they used to be'."

Then her eyes widened as she said, "You mean they're dying don't you? Without the Pool, the Grace are actually dying."

The Valeyard's smile widened so much that Clara couldn't help but wonder why his entire head wasn't swallowed up by it as he said, "Exactly, my dear. The Grace now are just as mortal as any of those that they supposedly protect. They're even more so in fact because they only have a few months to live at the most now. The Pool was far too much a part of them you see? They had to link both it and the Key to themselves in order for it to work like it did. That was their fatal weakness. One that they hoped that no one would ever discover. Unfortunately for them, however, I did . . . with a little help from a trusted source."

"Let me guess. A little birdie named Death told you, right?" Clara said with a frown.

The Valeyard nodded as he said in a voice filled with pride, "I knew you'd put it all together before too long."

"Yeah, but I didn't do it fast enough unfortunately. Now I've not only lost Jenna but I've also basically just gotten the Grace killed by chin wagging away with Death until it was much too late to stop you. And to think I actually thought that I was cut out to be the Doctor once. I guess that settles that once and for all doesn't it?" Clara said in a despondent voice.

"No one's perfect. Even I've made my share of mistakes from time to time," The Valeyard said in what almost sounded like a sympathetic tone to Clara's surprise.

"Now I know you're up to something. You're being nice to me," Clara said suspiciously.

That was when she tried to establish mental contact with Clara Prime to ask her if she could see any signs that the Valeyard was up to something. Her anxiety level immediately shot up by several notches as she quickly realized that she could no longer sense her presence anywhere.

She instantly looked at the Valeyard accusingly then as she said, "What did you do with Zombie Me and Ashy?"

The Valeyard chuckled as he said, "You didn't even realize just how close that you had truly grown to Jenna until now did you? Believe me. Such things happen a lot quicker than you realize at times just as they did between the two of us once. The sudden shock of her loss has obviously left you far too distracted to function properly or you would have already noticed that your counterpart from the alternate reality had vanished long before now. You should be wary of letting your emotions control you so much in the future, my dear. It might just turn out to be the end of you one day soon enough now if you're not careful."

"You'd be so broken up over that too I'm sure. I'm not going to ask again. Where are they?" Clara demanded as she began to glow brighter and brighter with Vortex energy by the moment.

It was a not so subtle threat against the Valeyard that he couldn't possibly miss. That was why he quickly opened a hidden area of the Console Room to reveal Clara Prime and Ashildr being held in place and completely immobilized by a powerful force field. They were now both staring at Clara with eyes filled with an unspoken warning which just made the pressure she was feeling at that moment become even worse as she realized that she was now the only one left to stop whatever the Valeyard was up to now.

"As you can see, they're still very much alive. They'll continue to remain that way too as long as you stay out of my way. Just allow me to find and finally finish off the Grace once and for all, and I'll gladly release both them and the so called Psycho Clara to you unharmed," The Valeyard offered.

Clara suddenly realized then that he was still not powerful enough to fight her by himself just yet and was afraid of her (and rightfully so). That had to be it or he wouldn't currently be trying to make a bargain with her like he was.

No wonder he was being so nice to her.

She couldn't help but smile as that realization helped bolster her sagging confidence somewhat and made her realize that she still had a chance to win this after all. She could still stop the Valeyard, rescue Jenna wherever she was, and sit things right again somehow. She knew she could.

Maybe she could even find a way to save the Grace. She'd certainly seen the Doctor pull off even crazier last minute saves with far greater odds against him after all.

"Clara, wait! You'll be making a huge mistake if you stop me now. You have to listen to me," The Valeyard said in an anxious voice as he instantly realized what she was thinking just by reading the expression on her face.

"And why should I do that? Give me one good reason, Future Boy," Clara said as she began to rapidly advance towards him with a confident smile on her face while her hands crackled with energy.

The Valeyard hesitated for a moment as if he were actually afraid to speak and then he finally blurted out, "The Grace are responsible for Arkytior becoming Rose."

"What?" Clara said in a stunned voice as she suddenly stopped in her tracks and stared at him intensely.

The Valeyard nodded in affirmation as he said, "It's true. You'll remember I'm sure that the renegade Time Lords known as the Celestial Intervention Agency purposely sent Arkytior to Earth on a false diplomatic mission in order to draw her into a trap."

"And once she got to Earth, the so-called mission turned out to be a Dalek invasion instead and they shot her TARDIS down which caused her to regenerate and become Rose as a result.* Yeah, she told me all about that," Clara said impatiently as she wondered where he was going with this.

"And did Rose ever tell you how she had actually defeated the entire Dalek fleet all by herself and was just about to leave Earth with her TARDIS still intact just before she was suddenly hit by one last Dalek blast that brought her ship down? She had always thought that the Daleks had gotten off one last shot before they were destroyed," The Valeyard added.

"They got lucky unfortunately. It happens sometimes," Clara said still not understanding what he was talking about.

The Valeyard shook his head as he said, "No, it was far from luck, Clara. The Daleks weren't the ones who fired that last shot at Arkytior's TARDIS. She was attacked by the Grace."

"No, that can't be right," Clara said in disbelief.

The Valeyard nodded emphatically as he said, "It is though I'm afraid. The Grace wanted her to become Rose and to stop hiding in fear of her powers like she had been for so long. They knew that if she were to become human that she would finally be the person who she always would have been without the deep paranoia that her powers had instilled in her from a young age to hold her back any longer. They knew that a far more confident Rose would be much more willing to use her powers freely and they could then make her into the new White Guardian and use her to do all of their dirty work. They completely changed her entire life in a single moment for their own purposes."

Then what seemed to Clara to be an almost earnest anger filled the Valeyard's voice as he added, "They kept us apart for nine hundred years because of what they did, Clara. They took her away from me and caused me to be alone for far too long. They can't just be allowed to get away with something like that can they?"

Clara now just stood there before him frozen in indecision because she wasn't sure what to believe anymore. Could this actually be true? Had the Grace deliberately manipulated Rose's life for their own purposes?

Rose had always said to her that she never truly trusted them. Could it be that her instincts were right after all.

The Valeyard now seemed to be almost reaching out to her as he said in a pleading voice, "Clara, you must believe me. For once, I'm on the right side. Stay out of this and let me finish them. They're far too dangerous to be free. Let me stop them before they hurt someone else. Let me stop them before they ruin someone else's life."

Part of Clara wanted to believe him and another part was warning her that the Doctor had always been a master liar when he had needed to be. Who better to know how to manipulate her so completely and efficiently than her best friend after all?

A war raged unseen in her mind for a brief moment and then she finally made her decision at last as she said in a determined voice, "Even if it is true I won't just stand by and let you murder them. That's not what I'm about and it's not what the real Doctor's about either."

The Valeyard nodded as he said in a voice filled with regret, "Yes, I thought you might feel that way but I had to try."

"It's over, Valeyard. This ends now and then I'll go pay the Grace a visit myself later," Clara said.

The Valeyard shook his head as he said, "I don't think so. I've come much too far to stop now."

"You're going to have to kill me to stop me now," Clara promised.

"Or I could just leave you behind," The Valeyard said as he suddenly began to dematerialize his TARDIS with a remote control he had suddenly pulled from his pocket.

"No!" Clara shouted in frustration as she realized that the ship was rapidly leaving her behind and taking her friends along with it.

Once it was completely gone, she was left drifting alone in space and unable to even so much as find the Valeyard again thanks to her inexperience with her powers. Her heart finally began to fill with absolute despair at last in that moment. She had completely mucked this whole thing up in every way possible now.

She hated to admit it but she had to get help before it was too late to save anyone.

Then almost as if on cue she found herself plucked out of space and back in her living room back on Earth where she was face to face with a deeply concerned Mary.

"Clara? What's wrong?" Mary said as she realized immediately that Clara was extremely upset about something.

"Everything," Clara said in a voice filled with pain as she wrapped her arms around Mary and hugged her tightly.

"It's going to be alright, Clara. You'll work it all out somehow. You always do," Mary whispered to her in a reassuring voice as she softly rubbed soothing circles on the middle of her back

Mary was the only light left in a world that seemed far too dark to her at that moment.

Clara resolved right then and there that once all of this was over that she was going to tell her how she really felt about her. She owed her that much at least along with an explanation as to why they could never be anything more than friends.

If she knew Mary, she wouldn't let it go at that though, and part of her didn't want her to if she was being honest with herself. Despite what she thought was a very good reason for them not to be a couple, her heart didn't want to give up on them that easily.

Her heart wanted to believe that there was always hope somehow. What a strange thing to think especially after everything that had just happened wasn't it?

"Can you vague it up a little more for me, Clara? I'm with Mary on this one. I'd like to know what happened too if you don't mind," A familiar voice said from behind her that suddenly brought her out of her thoughts.

Clara suddenly pulled away from Mary as she turned to face the newcomer with a snarl of rage and shouted, "You've got a lot of explaining to do yourself!"

Neko, the newest and most inexperienced member of the Grace not to mention the Christina de Souza of a previous universe, held up her hands in surrender and said in a confused voice, "Clara, I'm not sure why you're so angry with me but I'm sure it's some kind of misunderstanding somehow. We need to talk about this whatever it is. You can start by telling me what happened to Chaos and the rest of the Grace. I just came back to find it completely blown apart and you floating there all alone. Tell me happened, Clara. Please."

Clara hesitated because it was obvious that Neko was completely in the dark.

"You weren't there when the Valeyard attacked?" Clara asked.

"Is that what happened? No, the Grace sent me away on some kind of wild goose chase. They said that I needed to help save this civilization called the Vong from having their planet destroyed in a supernova. I thought at the time that it wasn't their usual style since they don't usually interfere in the affairs of the universe themselves most of the time, but I didn't question it too much because they had never lied to me before. Until now that is."

"What do you mean by that?" Clara asked as she began to realize what must have happened.

"When I got to the so called planet of the Vong not only had the people there never even heard of the Vong but their sun was just fine. It showed no signs at all of even so much as starting to go supernova. They lied to me, Clara. I don't know why but they lied, and I'm supposed to be their new leader," Neko said in a hurt voice.

"They wanted to protect you," Clara realized.

"What?" Neko asked in a confused voice.

"They knew. Somehow they had to have known. They knew that the Valeyard was about to destroy the Chaos Pool and they sent you away to protect you," Clara said with a smile.

Neko shuddered as she said, "He . . . I can't believe it. They . . . They're all going to die now. How did he even know about that?"

"A little birdie told him. You said _they_ are going to die? Not you though?" Clara asked.

"No, I wasn't a part of the Grace when they made the Pool. That was a long time ago. I'll be just fine. Completely alone and practically defenseless since I haven't finished fully learning how to use my powers just yet but otherwise fine. Yay, me," Neko said with a forlorn look on her face.

Despite how Neko felt at that moment Clara couldn't help but feel that the Grace had been a little vindicated in some ways. Yes, the Grace had lied to Neko but they had done so to save her life. They were afraid that their inexperienced leader would die if she stayed on Chaos during the Valeyard's attack.

Why hadn't they saved their own lives though? Nothing about that made any sense to her whatsoever.

She also still couldn't help but wonder if what the Valeyard had said about them had been true. It seemed less unlikely in the wake of the story of how they had saved Neko, but Clara couldn't ignore it entirely.

She had to know the truth and if it was true she would have to tell Rose. She would never be able to hide something like that from her even if it would wind up hurting her.

She had a right to know.

Somewhere in time and space the Valeyard felt a grim sense of satisfaction in that moment. Everything was going exactly as he had planned it. He was as sure of that as he was that Clara had just decided to find out the truth for herself and to tell Rose about it if it turned out to be right.

He knew her far too well to ever expect her to act otherwise after all.

"I have to admit that I was just as surprised as Clara by that last little revelation of yours. Is it really true? Did the Grace actually cause the creation of Rose Tyler? They've always found a way to keep their actions from being observed by even the most powerful of my kind in the past so I honestly don't know," Death said as she appeared next to him in the Console Room.

The Valeyard gave her a blank look that could have been the ultimate poker face in response as he said in an emotionless voice, "Does it really matter to you one way or the other?"

"I suppose not. As soon as what you just told her gets to Rose's ears, then the Grace will have just lost their greatest ally. That's all that really matters in the end anyway. That was an excellent example of the strategy of divide and conquer in action. See? You and I really are a perfect team aren't we?" Death said in a voice filled with praise.

The Valeyard only nodded and turned away from her without speaking another word.

 ***The whole story is in War of the Guardians Chapter 34** **if you need your memory refreshed.**

 **Next: It's up to Clara and Neko to save the rest of the Grace, not to mention Clara's friends, from the Valeyard before it's too late. Even if they do though, will the Valeyard's accusations against them be just as effective a form of revenge against them in the end as their deaths would have been? I guess it all kind of depends on whether its true or not doesn't it? Plus we'll find out exactly why Jenna has to pretend to be Clara and more importantly if she can actually pull it off or not. Oh, and Clara finally comes clean with Mary at last about her feelings. Is this the end of their relationship before it's even gotten started or just the beginning?**


End file.
